


You'll Never Know the "Psychopath" Sitting Next to You

by Che1seaLovesYouAll, TazumiHanako



Series: Collabs [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abusive Behavior, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bottom Keith (Voltron), Dark Lance (Voltron), Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff and Smut, Forced Sex, Galra Keith, Graphic Depictions of Torture, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Langst, M/M, Nightmares, Obsessive Behavior, One Night Stands, Physical Abuse, Pidge is a savage, Possessive Behavior, Protective shiro, Seduction, Seductive Behavior, Smut, Top Lance (Voltron), Verbal Abuse, based on a tumblr prompt, klance fluff, klangst, multi personality lance, possessive lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-10-19 11:18:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10638759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Che1seaLovesYouAll/pseuds/Che1seaLovesYouAll, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TazumiHanako/pseuds/TazumiHanako
Summary: Title taken from lyrics of the song, “Heathens” by Twenty One Pilots.~•~When Lance gets bitten by a spider, he gets an alternate personality named Malo who abuses the Paladins from taking Pidge's glasses to stealing Shiro's tech arm and hiding it on them.This personality is cruel in many ways but most notably with Keith. Will they be able to get the old Lance back before Keith can suffer even more damage?





	1. Prologue: Bitten on the Mission

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Che1seaLovesYouAll](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Che1seaLovesYouAll/gifts).



> Note: Idea belongs to Che1seaLovesYouAll, she and I are collaborating on this work together through Google Docs. 
> 
> It's a gift to her, and as I write the story with all the ideas she gives me, she helps me by correcting any grammar issues and shooting any thing back that could add to the plot. This is the first part of our collab, with more chapters to come. 
> 
> It's wonderful working with her for this story, and I hope everyone loves it. This is just the prologue but more is to come.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Paladins receive a distress signal from a dark, damp planet. They decide to split up and suddenly, something unexpected happens when Lance gets bitten by a spider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Idea belongs to Che1seaLovesYouAll, she and I are collaborating on this work together through Google Docs.
> 
> It's a gift to her, and as I write the story with all the ideas she gives me, she helps me by correcting any grammar issues and shooting any thing back that could add to the plot. This is the first part of our collab, with more chapters to come.
> 
> It's wonderful working with her for this story, and I hope everyone loves it. This is just the prologue but more is to come.

The planet was dark, with little lighting. Each of the paladins had gone off in teams to scavenge the area. 

Allura had gotten a call earlier that day and the bat-like aliens seemed to be in trouble based off how the call had ended with the screen going black. 

After that, Allura had sent the paladins on a mission to the planet to help out. Shiro had them group off to cover more ground, and track down where the distress call had taken place. 

Group one being Lance and Keith, while Shiro had gone off with Pidge and Hunk. 

Shiro had suggested that it would be a good bonding experience for the two so that they wouldn’t fight anymore, but Keith begged to differ. 

“Why is there no light on this planet? I can barely see where I’m going.” Complained Lance as he pushed more vines and branches out of the way.

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the dark.” Keith smiled as Lance’s face grew red from embarrassment. 

“As if Mullet, like I’d be afraid of the da….” Before Lance could finish his sentence, his footing had slipped as he fell down a steep slope with a yelp. 

“Lance, are you ok!?” Keith called out as he found himself falling victim to the same fate as Lance. When he arrived at the bottom, he found himself on top of Lance in a compromising position. 

“Uh…Keith?” Lance’s eyes were wide with surprise as Keith’s cheeks were flushed red. He froze for a moment before pushing himself off the blue paladin. 

Keith always ended up in embarrassing situations with Lance, but this one topped the cake as number one of the list of embarrassing stories. 

“Let’s keep going, maybe we can find where that distress call came from.” Keith noted, but as he walked away, Lance let out a yelp as retracted his hand from the ground and held it to his chest. 

Where his hand had rested, a spider had emerged and crawled away from the spot. It vaguely looking like a black widow that was deadly on Earth. 

“Lance, we have to call Allura, now.” Keith snapped as he looked at the bite mark, noting that it had started to bubble with pus. 

The bite was most likely infected, and Lance wouldn’t make it long if they didn’t get the help they needed and quick. 

“Allura, Allura, we need to be beamed up to the ship.” Keith communicated through his helmet, the other side was full of static. He suspected that something was blocking the frequency from going through. 

“Shit.” Keith cursed under his breath as he looked around the nearby area for something to cover the wound with. 

“Keith, I feel hot.” Lance by this point was panting, he had definitely contracted a fever from the bite. 

The only other option would be to contact the other paladins in hopes that one of them could get in contact with Allura. 

Keith was desperate, he didn’t want to lose Lance, especially since the last two weeks they had started to become closer to one another. 

He didn’t want to lose all of that progress because of some damn spider. 

“Shiro, come in, Shiro.” There was still static on the other line, which meant that they were in a dead area. Keith suspected it was because they were on lower ground. 

“Keith, if I don’t make it, please just…” before Lance could finish his sentence, Keith was already lifting him off the ground, wrapping his arm around his neck to keep him on two feet. 

“Don’t even talk like that, you’re going to survive, Lance.” Keith started to climb up the slope they had slipped down, with Lance being carried with his left arm. 

Each move towards the top was hard, with Keith losing his grip a few times. As they got close to the top, Shiro’s voice started to come through the helmet.

“Keith, Lance, where is your location?” Shiro’s voice came through in a panic. He had probably been trying to contact them for the last couple minutes since they hit the dead spot. 

“Shiro, we’re here, but Lance is in bad shape, we need to get him to a healing pod and fast.” Keith spoke through the helmet as they finally reached the top of the embankment. 

“Thank god, we didn’t know what happened to you, but Lance is hurt?” Shiro’s voice came through again as Keith took a deep breath as he checked the wound which was getting worse by the second. 

“Yes, we need to get on the ship and quickly. He was bit by a black widow spider, and he won’t survive for long if we don’t.” Keith knew a bit about the black widow. 

He knew that the females were often more harmful to humans, but the spider’s gender was unknown. 

The venom could potentially kill Lance if not taken care of immediately, just like the bite of a rattlesnake. 

Lance only had a bit of time, but with alien tech on their side, he believed Lance would be alright. They just needed to get him to a healing pod quickly. 

“I contacted Allura, they are going to come get you,” Shiro announced through the helmet. “She’s tracking you through the helmet, so don’t take it off.” 

“Thank you, Shiro.”

Time had passed as they sat waiting for Allura. Lance’s fever had risen considerably, and by this time Keith was starting to panic. 

There was no water near by to cool down his fever, and Lance wasn’t talking and breathing heavily. 

Keith hoped that they would arrive soon before the fever could escalate ever further. 

“Keith, get in position, we are going to beam you up now.” Allura called out as Keith wasted no time in lifting Lance up off the ground. Keith was carrying Lance bridal style since he wouldn’t be able to stand on his own at this point. 

There was a flash of light, and Lance and Keith were transported onto the ship, with the rest of the paladins, Allura, and Coran waiting for them. 

“Hurry, get him into the healing pod now.” Allura commanded as Coran took Lance out of Keith’s arms and set him up for the pod. Shiro had walked over to Keith to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. 

“He’s going to be alright, Allura informed us that the planet we were on are known for these spiders, but she said that they aren’t like the black widows on Earth. Unfortunately, not much is known about it in any of the Altean books. I guess the Altean’s could never figure out what the spider’s venom did, but anyone who was bitten always survived.” Shiro explained as Keith’s eyes lit up at the new found information. 

“Coran is going to run some diagnostic tests, to make sure Lance’s vitals are ok but we aren’t going anywhere for a few days till Lance is back to himself.” Allura said as the rest of the paladins looked at Lance in the healing pod before looking at each other. 

“I wouldn’t feel right leaving Lance by himself in that pod, when he wakes up he’d be so confused.” Hunk said worried about his friend.

“Then we will take shifts, Keith you’ve had a long day, so you, Hunk and Pidge go get some rest and I’ll take the first shift.” Shiro told them as Keith looked skeptical at first before nodding and walking out of the room to get some much needed rest. 

Pidge and Hunk looked back at Shiro before following Keith out of the room, not wanting to argue with the leader. 

They were all exhausted with the day, and there worry for Lance wasn’t help calm their sporadic minds. 

Pidge went to work on some tech for the ship, while Hunk simply joined her, neither wanting to sleep. They just couldn’t not without knowing if Lance was ok or not. 

Keith, however, was laying on his bed looking up at the ceiling, hands fiddling with his knife. 

He always found that this calmed him down when in a crisis of a situation. He hoped that Lance would recover shortly because he partially blamed himself for what had transpired today. 

He’s the one that fell on top of Lance which meant that he’s the one that pushed him to the ground in the first place. 

The spider bit him when he was on the ground so he just knew that it was his fault that it happened. He couldn’t help but blame himself for what happened to Lance and it killed him. 

He squeezed his eyes tight as he shot out of bed to go back to the healing pod to see if Lance was doing ok. He wanted to obey Shiro’s orders but he just couldn’t. 

As Keith rounded the corner he ran into somebody, the colors of green and orange flashing before his eyes as he was about to fall to the ground. 

Two arms caught him just in time as he looked up to see a familiar brunette grinning down at him. Something about his smile creeped Keith out for some reason which was unusual, since this was Lance they were talking about. 

“Lance, but you just went into the healing pod. Are you sure you’re feeling ok?” Keith questioned him as Lance gave an almost sinister smile in appearance.

“Never better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like Lance is better, but why is he acting weird? Find out next week!
> 
> Hi, guys! I'm Che1seaLovesYouAll, you may know me from Tumblr as @che1sea-xiao-long.
> 
> I make story ideas on my account and now I'm finally doing my first ever writing collaboration on A03! This is the best day of my life.
> 
> Working as a beta reader is really amazing, I hope this will be my favorite thing to do in the future.


	2. Chapter 1: He Can Smell Your Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance wakes up the next morning but doesn't remember anything about what happened yesterday, but why?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is finally here! I forgot to mention that chapters will come out every week because my friend Brittany has school, so I'm going to post this chapter for her.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy chapter 2 everyone!

It was dark. Lance’s eyes felt heavy as he found himself climbing deeper under the covers. His mind was a blank slate, all the memories of yesterday were a blur. 

He couldn’t even remember when his head had hit the pillow. His ears picked up the sound of his door creaking open as he hissed at the light invading the darkness. 

“Lance, it’s time for breakfast buddy.” Hunk was the one to enter his room. “How are you feeling today?” 

“Hunk, turn off the light, it’s effecting my beauty sleep.” Lance’s face scrunched up in distaste as he pushed himself further into the covers consuming his body.

“Lance, your back!” Hunk snapped as he picked up the slim boy into a giant bear hug, thus disrupting any more sleep Lance wanted. 

“What do you mean I'm back? I never left.” Lance furrowed his eyebrows as he locked eyes with Hunk for a brief moment. He could tell in the way Hunk at set him down and fidgeted with his hands that he felt uncomfortable around his friend, and Lance didn’t know why. 

Hunk and Lance had gone back since the Garrison days, maybe even further back then that. Lance never made Hunk nervous, and they were always constantly together. 

Seeing Hunk act like this after so long made Lance wonder what had transpired the last day. Lance squeezed his eyes shut in hopes of remembering an inkling of a memory, but all he got was the spider bite that happened on that planet. 

“You’ve kind of been strange the last day. You left your healing pod and Shiro tried to chase after you but you kept going. When Shiro found you, you kind of had Keith cradled in your arms and you didn’t seem like you wanted to let go.” Hunk explained. 

“Wait, what, me with Keith like that? You can’t be serious, Hunk.” Lance’s smiled turned upward into a smirk. The very thought of him and Keith in such an obscure position made him laugh at how ridiculous it sounded. 

Sure, Keith and Lance had started to spend more time together in hopes of bonding and stop the fighting for Shiro’s sake. However, he wouldn’t just hold Keith like that, not in such a romantic way even if not reciprocated. 

“I’m being serious, Lance. Pidge and I walked around that corner at the same time and saw you holding Keith in a romantic way, but Keith seemed a bit uncomfortable by it. I was told by Shiro that Keith is kind of awkward with human affection since he never had it as a kid. You, kind of kept him there in this vice grip and it probably scared him a bit. I don’t know what was going on with you yesterday but I’d apologize if I were you. Keith is this cool guy who gives off this edgy appearance but he’s no different from us. Today, he may just ignore you to keep up appearances but I think he’s scared of you now.” Hunk explained to Lance as his eyes widened a fraction.

“Keith is scared of me? Just for hugging him? What did I do yesterday, my mind is all foggy?” Lance grasped at his head as Hunk put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. 

“Just get dressed, and meet everybody downstairs for breakfast. Keith might try to ignore you at first but try to sort it out.” Hunk mentioned, but before he left Lance grabbed onto his shirt. 

“Hunk, before you go, what else did I do yesterday?” Lance questioned, his hands shaking as he looked up into his friend’s eyes. 

“Lance, I…” Hunk looked down with his fists clenched at his sides.

“Please, Hunk, I need to know.” 

“You were acting strange all day, you even started pranking Shiro by hiding his arm on him. We thought you just decided to have a funny bone, but then you were calling us these nicknames that you normally don’t call us. What was weird is that you seemed to be drawn to Keith the most and followed him everywhere he went like a lost puppy. Wherever he went, you’d follow and you kept calling him ‘pretty boy’.”

“Why Keith?” Lance couldn’t believe that he would be that way towards Keith of all people. At one point he tried willing it to be just a bad dream that he’s wake up from but it wasn’t. 

“No one can explain why it was, Keith. It just was, maybe you have some hidden attraction to his mullet.” Hunk laughed trying to clear the air.

“Thanks, Hunk.” Lance gave a soft smile, noticing how his friend had tried to cheer him up.

“No problem, meet me for breakfast ok?” Hunk smiled, nerves around gone as he exited the room. 

Lance looked at his hands for a moment before getting up from the comfort of his bed to get dressed. He felt a bit sweaty, but he decided to shower after a stop in the training room. 

First, it was time to meet everyone for breakfast, and as he grabbed his shirt his hands began to shake as he thought about how everyone would see him after the events he couldn’t remember. Lance’s arms snaked around his body, he felt numb, almost frozen. 

He already felt like the seventh wheel of Voltron, but now they were afraid of him. His mind wandered as he pictured a scene of them kicking him off the team, he fell down to his knees as he willed himself to stop thinking this way. He racked his brain for answers as he pulled the shirt over his head (his pants already on from the night before). 

He came up empty as he took a deep breath before exiting his room. 

That morning, everyone was in full blown conversations with each other except for Keith who was particularly quiet today. 

Shiro noticed this but he chose to stay silent, that is until Lance entered the room and the voices quickly died. Lance felt like an alien on display at area 51. 

“Good morning, buddy.” Hunk was the first to greet him. They had already had their hellos before breakfast and he knew that Hunk was just trying to make him feel better. 

“Lance, how are you feeling today?” Shiro was the first to ask as Lance snapped out of his thoughts.  
“I’m feeling better today, my brain is a little fuzzy though.” Lance explained as everyone looked at each other for a split second. 

“Your voice seems to be back.” Pidge noted as she came up on the right side of the boy. 

“My voice?” Lance was confused for a moment until Allura decided to speak up.

“Yes, your voice was slightly deeper yesterday, I just assumed you had something stuck in your throat.” Allura mentioned as Lance grasped at his neck. He didn’t remember anything, but why. 

“I’m going to go train.” Keith spoke up for the first time that morning as he pushed away from the table before stalking off out the doors. Lance already knew it was a bad idea to run after Keith now but he couldn’t help himself. He wanted to make things right once and for all. 

Ignoring everyone’s pleads and a yell from Shiro, he was out the door after Keith. He had lost him for a split second but then he saw his mullet walk in the direction of the training room. 

Lance’s speed quickened as he ran through the closing doors. Knowing Keith, he’d try to lock everybody out because it would keep Lance away. He silently watched as Keith called fourth one of the simulators at level six. 

Keith fought with such grace that anyone would be lucky to watch him fight. He had fluid movements as he cut through the android in one swift sliding motion. Lance smiled as he decided to clap to show his approval. 

Keith’s head had whipped around as soon as he heard the clapping and his eyes had widened a fraction at the sight of Lance standing in the doorway. 

“Lance, how did you...?” Keith rushed a hand through his jet black hair. He didn’t realize he had forgotten to turn off the simulation as the bot came charging at him. 

“Keith, look out!” Lance yelled out as everything faded to black. Lance let out a heavy breath as his vision darkened, he felt as if he was being pushed out of the way of his own mind. He felt surrounded by the darkness and couldn’t see a thing. 

He must have been having blackouts, that would explain why he couldn’t remember anything. Lance then remembered that he acted strangely, but he shrugged it off, thinking it may have been exhaustion. 

His vision had been blurred for him as his body made movements of their own accord toward the drone and pushing it backward with one quick movement with his hands. Keith watched in shock as Lance’s facial expression had changed to the Lance from the day before. 

The robots head was now in bits and pieces and Keith couldn’t believe that Lance had become that strong, but before it could progress Keith ended the simulation level before more bots could be produced. 

Lance’s hand was outreached towards Keith’s but that smile that he had worn yesterday was now plastered on his face. Keith didn’t want to take his hand in fear of the day before so he swatted the hand away.

“Pretty boy, what a temper, and I thought we bonded.” Lance laughed as Keith glared at the boy. He was scared, and what’s worse it was of his friend. Despite not being extremely close, he did see Lance as a friend at the very least. 

“I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I’d like it if you stopped.” Keith helped himself off the ground as he heard Lance let out a sharp breath from behind him. Keith turned around and instead of seeing the look he had seen before; he saw a calming smile that he trusted. 

“Like if I stopped what?” Lance questioned the mullet boy. 

“I just told you, why do I have to repeat myself, you heard me.” Keith snapped as he threw his hands in the air towards Lance. 

“Keith, I really don’t know what’s going on, but all I know is that my hands hurt a bit.” Lance smiled slightly as he looked at his hands that seemed to be beat red from something or someone. 

“You destroyed that bot, don’t you remember?” Keith took a hesitant step closer as Lance winced as he poked at the reddened flesh. 

“Honestly, no, not a thing.” Lance scratched his head as he stared at the broken bot on the floor. 

“Lance, I swear if this is your idea of some sick and twisted joke, it’s not funny!” Keith pushed Lance back slightly, his fear going away. 

“I’m not joking, but I do want to apologize for any strange behavior yesterday. I honestly don’t remember yesterday at all, and if I scared you or made you uncomfortable in some way shape or form, I want to say I’m sorry.” Lance took Keith’s hand in his as he bowed his head.

“What are you doing?” Keith questioned.

“Apologizing.” Lance murmured, only chancing a look up when Keith bursts out into laughter. 

“You’re the weirdest person in the world, I’ve never seen someone apologize like that before.” 

Lance was ready to retort back but when he saw Keith’s smile, his words got caught in his throat as his cheeks turned red. Had Keith always been that beautiful? 

Maybe it was just the fact that Lance made Keith smile that caused his heart to beat fast. That had to be it, Lance decided that’s exactly what caused his heart to race. 

The fact that he could make the mullet smile was a feat he was proud of, that’s why his heart was beating. He was excited he accomplished that type of feat. 

“I saw you were sparring before; can I join you?” Lance questioned as Keith looked at him almost skeptical before smiling gently and throwing him a couple of gloves. 

“We may, those gloves will help you from injuring yourself.” Keith proceeded to tie his hair up in a ponytail which sent Lance into a flustered mess. There was no way a boy should look as pretty as a girl. 

“I’m ready when you are.” Lance called out as he yanked on the protective gloves.

“Bring it on.” 

Keith started with a high kick, which Lance managed to block, but as soon as the kick left he blew at his hands which were still hurting from the redness. 

Lance took this opportunity to take a few swings at Keith, but he dodged each one gracefully. Keith then took the opportunity to swing his leg underneath Lance’s to knock him over which had knocked the breath right out of him. 

Keith smiled as he put a foot gently on his chest as if a tiger claiming their prey. Lance looked up for a moment before losing consciousness which had sent Keith into a panic, but it stopped once a hand grabbed his leg and knocked him off by surprise.

“Lance, don’t scare me, damn it.” Keith yelled as his back hit the floor, but when he got up he noticed that Lance had gotten surprisingly very close to him. 

“I’m sorry I scared you, maybe this will help ease the fear.” Keith took a chance to look up but right before he could see Lance’s expression, he was thrown up against the nearest wall with both wrists constraint to it. 

“Lance, what are you…?” before Keith could finish his sentence, Lance had pushed a thumb against his lips in order to silence him. 

“I guess I could be Lance, if that’s what you want ‘Pretty Boy’.” The same expression appeared again as Lance’s forehead rested against Keith’s as he pushed his bottom lip down and stared at his violet eyes. 

“Keith?” There was a knock at the door, which was currently locked. 

“Shiro, hurry u…” Keith had tried to call for him but Lance had covered his mouth. 

“’Pretty Boy,’ are you afraid of me? And here I thought we were getting along great.” Lance teased with malice in his voice. 

Keith noticed the change of tone in his voice compared to when Lance had apologized. He was confused, was Lance just pretending so he can get Keith alone? Was Lance even that type of person? 

“Keith, Allura’s putting a code in to unlock the door, we are going to be coming in.” Shiro called out from behind the door.

“Pity, I was hoping we could spend more alone time together.” Lance mused as he kissed Keith on his forehead, but instead of being a gentle gesture, it was more possessive in nature. 

The kiss alone made it seem like Lance was claiming him as his own property, but why was he acting this way?

All those thoughts ceased when the door was violently swung open to reveal Shiro and the rest of the paladins who saw that Keith was being helped up against the wall by Lance. 

Shiro didn’t hesitate to pull Lance off of Keith, shoving him towards the others as he grabbed Keith’s face to see if he was ok. 

“I’m fine, Shiro.” That was the only thing Keith could say as he pushed himself off the wall and towards the now open door. 

“Could’ve fooled me, Keith.” Was all Shiro could mutter as he followed after him leaving Pidge and Hunk with Lance. 

They both looked at each other, but then when they heard raging breathing from Lance they looked back over to see the normal gentle expression that Lance normally wore. 

“My head hurts a bit, what’s going on guys?” Lance questioned as Hunk and Pidge couldn’t even manage an answer for the brunette.

“Wasn’t I sparring with Keith, did you guys join in too?” Lance kept spitballing questions as the two remained silent. Lance furrowed his brows as he looked around for Keith, but he was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Keith?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like Lance is confused about why Keith is afraid of him, but why? Could it be about what happened yesterday? Or because of the spar match?
> 
> Who knows? We'll have to find out next chapter!
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumnihanako  
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long


	3. Chapter 2: Storm the Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro is trying to look out for Keith, but does he go to far? Meanwhile Hunk and Pidge try to figure out what's going on with a distraught Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: TazumiHanako here to apologize for such a late update. I found out this week that I'm failing one of my classes, so writing the chapter this week was becoming hard to do. 
> 
> I got some of it done on Tuesday, but then finding a way to still graduate come fall took top priority for this week. I wanted to get this story out as soon as possible. 
> 
> I hope to write two chapters this week as an apology for the delay, but finals are coming up and it may prove harder. My apology for everyone is if they would like, go to my tumbler page and summit a one-shot prompt of your favorite Fairy Tail pairing, or Voltron pairing, and I will write it up to post on my tumbler and here as well. 
> 
> Also this story now comes with a playlist, which can be heard on you tube. I'll leave a link below my notes so you can listen and read. 
> 
> I'm happy to work on this collab with Che1seaLovesYouAll , and I hope to work with many other artists in the future. If anyone would like to contact us on tumbler to possibly draw for this story, than you may as long as story credit is given. 
> 
> I'd love to see fan art, it's been my dream to see my stories drawn up since I'm still working on my art skills which aren't at their best as of yet. Without further ado, enjoy the second chapter!!! 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSigZ0XlhOCkRpLlgOm2UliIot0stdTGk

“Keith!” Shiro had been calling after the red paladin for a total of ten minutes but the paladin refused to turn and look at him.

“Keith, please would you just tell me what Lance did?” Shiro pleaded with the paladin as Keith stopped walking, allowing his leader to catch up to him.

“Shiro, I’m fine. There’s nothing for us to talk about.” Keith squeezed his eyes shut, his hands curled into fists and were still shaking from the fear he felt. 

“Keith, you and I both know that’s a lie. You’re shaking right now.” Shiro was always able to tell when something was wrong with Keith. He had known him for so long that everything he did became easy for him to read. 

Keith, however; wasn’t always so willing to share his feelings with the black paladin and would often shut everyone out. Keith was used to being alone, so he tried not to let anybody in close in fear that they would leave him like his family did. 

Shiro became Keith’s confidant and normally Keith could open up to Shiro about most things, but something’s Keith still kept from him. Even though they were close, Shiro still couldn’t break that inner wall that Keith kept up, always hiding his emotions from the world. 

Keith knew that keeping it in hurt Shiro because he thought Keith didn’t trust him, but that was untrue. Keith did trust him, but he didn’t want anyone to know how scared he was of the blue paladin at the moment. Lance wasn’t himself, and he knew that but the fear was still there, making him tremble. 

He would always be a-waiting for Lance to come after him again with that same expression he wore when he would become possessive and hostile. Keith wasn’t use to it, and even started to wonder if this was how Lance really was. 

“I’m fine. I promise I’m fine.” Keith chose not to turn around as he brought his trembling hands to his heart. He tried desperately to calm down the beating of his heart as his breathing became more shallow. 

“Keith, I know that you’re scared. I’ve known you for a while, and I know when you’re hurting or upset. You can choose not to talk about it but I know there’s something wrong, and for now I think it’s best if you stay in your room for the rest of the day away from Lance.” At this comment, Keith shift his feet as he spun around to meet Shiro’s gaze. 

“What? Shiro, that’s not fair!” Keith’s voice had risen a little with anger. He refused to hide away like some prim and proper princess. He’s not some damsel in distress, he can handle himself fine and didn’t need Shiro to be an overprotective older brother. 

“It doesn’t have to be fair, I’m not letting Lance near you right now. You’re shaking because of him, and yet you’re so stubborn that you can’t see that Lance seems to be going after you the most. I’m just trying to protect you because I care about you and I don’t want you hurt.” Shiro raked his hand through his hair as he suddenly found the ground more interesting than the boy he was arguing with. 

“I’m not some damsel in distress, I can handle it just fine.” Keith didn’t want to be treated like a child. He was a grown adult who can handle his own issues. 

“I’m not saying you are, but I’m not going to let him touch you again until we figure out what’s been going on with him.” Shiro snapped as he forcibly grabbed Keith’s arm and threw him into his room before locking the room behind him, thus trapping Keith inside. 

Keith attempted to bang on the door to get out, but it was no use if the door was locked from the outside. Locking the doors on the inside was easy, but could easily be overridden from the outside, but if locked from the outside, you’d only get out if someone came by and unlocked it themselves. 

Keith stared at the door, giving up on trying to get out of his room. He walked over to the bed to lay down for a bit, his thoughts wandered to Lance. His eyes and how in them his natural blue eyes seemed to darken, his smile turned upright into a smirk. Keith shivered from his thought process as he pushed his face into his pillow. 

Shiro may have handled the situation a little differently than what Keith had expected but Shiro knew he’s never open up to him about how Lance has been making him feel as of late. He produced a fear within him, that felt unnatural to him. He thought that Lance and him had finally started to become closer to one another apart from their rivalry. 

He just didn’t understand why he was acting this way all of a sudden. Keith’s thoughts ran rampant as his eyes closed from the exhaustion. 

“Lance, are you sure you're ok?” Hunk was the first to speak as the silence had started to get to him.

“No, I’m not Hunk, you’re saying that I might have hurt Keith again.” Lance cried out as he through his head into his palms. 

“I didn’t exactly say you hurt him.” Hunk scratched the back of his head as he saw how distraught his friend was. 

“Lance, I don’t know what’s going on with you lately but Shiro seemed really upset with you.” Pidge commented on their leader whom was the angriest out of all of them. 

“I don’t know how it happened, I just want everything to go back to normal. I haven’t been myself since the spider bite, and I’ve been having these crazy blackouts.” Pidge and Hunk exchanged a look as they both turned to Lance. 

“Maybe Hunk and I should run some tests on you, make sure that you’re ok?” Pidge suggested as the doors opened to reveal a fuming Shiro. His nose was scrunched up as his eyes stared into Lance’s soul; Lance would be lying if he said that Shiro didn’t scare him sometimes. 

“Lance, what did you do to Keith?” Shiro’s expression had not changed but his tone of voice was somehow softer than what his expression had portrayed. 

“Shiro, I honestly don’t remember. I’ve been kind of having these blackouts, and I can’t remember anything during them.” Lance looked up at his leader as Shiro turned to the other paladins in the room. 

“Is it possible for Lance to have post traumatic stress disorder from something on that planet? I have blackouts quite often and fly off the handle sometimes in triggering situations because I’m currently going through it.” Shiro didn’t know if this what Lance was going through, but it was an educated guess for his blackouts. 

There was no explanation for his personality change during these times, but maybe a few tests would help them get their answers. 

“Honestly, there might be a more underlying reason to his behavior. Lance always saw Keith as his rival, maybe he’s doing it on purpose to get under Keith’s skin.” Pidge meant it as a joke at first, but once it left her mouth, she quickly went to cover her lips. 

She did this often, not thinking before she spoke. She had done this before with Allura when she had told her that she would actually get her father back. She didn’t mean to come off so harshly nor did she mean to say that Lance was doing this as some joke to Keith. She knew how Lance felt about Keith, even though the blue paladin wouldn’t notice it himself. 

Lance had harbored a crush on Keith since the first day they met, but of course the brunette never noticed and had always saw Keith as a rival. Every time he challenged Keith, Lance promised it was because he had to beat him. Pidge knew better than Lance did, and saw the way Lance would look at Keith when he thought no one else was looking. 

She had always been observant of his feelings for the red paladin, but Lance was to oblivious to realize that he had any feelings for Keith. Pidge knew that saying something about Keith in front of Shiro was a big no, but she just said something in relation to Keith in front of Lance, even if she didn’t mean the words that she spouted out. 

She was afraid of his reaction as she snuck a glance at Lance from where she stood. Lance’s eyes had gone dark as his smile turned upward into a smirk. She remembered that look, and it seemed to always appear when Keith was mentioned or around for that matter. It’s as if his trigger was Keith; maybe that was the first step to finding out what was wrong with him. 

“I’m sorry, but what did you accuse me of, four-eyes?” Lance glared at the girl as he strolled over to her and snatched the glasses off of her face. 

“Wait, those aren’t mine, those are…” She stopped mid-sentence as Lance dropped the glasses on the floor and crushed them with his foot. Pidge could only watch as tears slipped from her eyes. Those glasses weren’t her’s, she could see fine, but those belonged to Matt, her brother. 

“Lance!” Shiro was the first to yell as Lance merely shrugged and walked out the door. Hunk watched as his friend left, and started to shake from the pure anger behind that motion. Lance would never do that to Pidge, would he?

Keith was comfortable, and at this point he didn’t want to get up. He was asleep and from the past couple nights that they had been doing training and battling the galra. 

This was the first time he actually got a break from all of that and could rest without a care in the world. His only concern was Lance, he was honestly terrified to be around him now, and he hated feeling this way. He was awkward with physical touch since he never got much as a child. 

The only person he ever felt comfortable hugging was Shiro, because he felt comfortable with him. His thought process changed as he thought about how angry Shiro had been before, the last time he saw him react that way was when he found out that he was being bullied back at the Garrison. 

Keith was gay, and not many people knew except for Shiro, but someone had overheard a conversation and the bullying had started. The kids would often stop him in the halls and ask to meet with him outside in hopes of learning how to be a better pilot but when he would meet them, they would grab him and hit him repeatedly for being the way he was. 

Keith wrapped his arms around him tighter as he thought back to those moments in his life. Shiro had eventually found out and he had gotten into a fight with those students to the point where they ended up dropping out of school. Keith never talked about his problems which is why Shiro often would push and prod to get answers, taking the place of a protective older brother. 

On top of having no family, he had to deal with his sexuality on his own. Shiro had always been super protective of him, and it made sense that it wouldn’t change even now. 

Keith sighed as he heard the door to his room open, he quietly wondered if Shiro had come back to let him out but he was to tired to care much. He let his mind wander until a body sat on the other side of his bed and pushed back the covers. 

At first, Keith had thought it was strange that Shiro would climb underneath the covers with him but Keith shrugged those feelings off letting sleep overcame him. 

It wasn’t until two arms wrapped around his waist that he suddenly felt the fear again. 

He was to afraid to open his eyes as the figure placed kisses along his neck, sucking at the delicate pale skin. Keith held back each moan, not wanting to give the person the satisfaction. 

The stranger then bit into his neck like a vampire as Keith yelped from the pain, as soon as he let out the sound the stranger had pulled him over to be underneath him. 

Keith kept his eyes shut, as he began to shake from the interaction. He had a feeling he knew who it was, but he didn’t want to believe it was true. 

He continued to keep his eyes shut until he felt something soft on his lips. His eyes jumped open as tears pricked the corners of his eyes. 

It had been Lance, and he had secretly hoped that it wouldn’t have been him. He was alone currently, and under normal circumstances he could get out of any situation, but not when his fear was controlling his movements. 

He felt trapped and constricted as he felt a tongue sweep across his lips wanting access. Keith refused as he kept his mouth shut; he’d rather not give in to the blue paladin’s commands. 

When Lance had lifted his head, Keith was ready to scream out but Lance had taken his right hand and blocked his mouth from being able to call out for help. 

“You’re not thinking of calling for help, are you? And I thought we were bonding here, ‘Pretty boy.’” Lance’s face spread out into a full on grin as Keith tried to grab at his bed sheets desperately to shield himself from him. 

Suddenly, an alarm started to go off as Lance’s eyes lightened up and he left out a shallow breath. 

“Huh? Wha...What am I doing here?” Lance looked around his surroundings as he caught a glance of Keith, who was underneath him with widened and teary eyes. 

“Keith? What did I, did I hurt you?” Lance was questioning the boy, but at the moment he couldn’t speak. Each time he tried, his mouth would just open and close like a fish. 

“Paladins, someone has infiltrated the castle, we need everyone at all ends of the castle on the defensive. We don’t know what the intruder wants but we can’t let them obtain Voltron.” Allura’s voice called over the speakers as Lance climbed off of Keith’s bed and ran for his room to get into his armor, and obtain his Bayard. 

He would come back to Keith as soon as he was done. He couldn’t stand to see that look on Keith’s face, especially directed towards him. 

As soon as Lance had left, Keith had slowly crept out of his bed to grab his armor, but before he could, his door had opened once more as he swung around to see two galra holding some type of net. 

Keith looked at them quizzically as he grabbed hold of his Bayard and got ready to go on the defensive.

“Why are you here?” Keith snapped as he blocked himself with his sword in case they tried anything funny.

“It’s funny you should say that. Zarkon, had recently found out of a paladin with galran blood running through their veins. He had grown an interest in you, but not only for that reason but also to use you to bait in Voltron. The princess might not want to make the trade for a lowly galra, but Zarkon has learned about the Champion very well, and he would do anything for his little brother. Allura seems to be close to the Champion which means she will go along with the plan as well which means kidnapping you will get us Voltron.” The galra on the right explained as the left one prepared the net. 

“You really thought this through, huh? To bad you won’t be kidnapping anyone today.” Keith let out a battle cry as he swung his sword at the net and hit it against each of their legs to knock them to the ground. 

He had managed to grab his helmet before exiting the room and proceeded to contact the other Paladins. 

“Guys…can…you hear me?” Keith was panting as he leaned his back against the wall, making a distance from him and the two galran men. 

“Keith, where are you? Are you ok?” Shiro was the first to question his whereabouts as Keith smiled to himself. 

“I’m fine, but we found their target.” Keith smiled to himself as he turned to look around the corner to check for more galra. 

“What’s the target?” Lance questioned through the intercom. 

“It’s m…” Before Keith could finish, he had been knocked out as his line became fuzzy. 

“Keith, Keith, Keith!!!” Lance had become desperate as this point as he yelled for the red paladin. There was no answer as Shiro and the others found Lance’s location. 

“Where’s Keith?” Lance looked over to the other paladin’s his hopes diminished when he realized Keith was missing from the group. 

“Lance, before Keith was knocked out, we believe he was about to say he was the target.” Pidge was the first to speak as he tried to find Keith’s coordinates.

“No, we have to go after him, we have to stop them before they could…” Lance by this point was rambling as Hunk put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “He’ll be fine, I promise.” Hunk smiled as Lance shot a glance at Pidge.

“Pidge, I blacked out again. Did I do something weird?” Lance questioned. “Nothing, nothing at all,” Pidge had replied as she saw the coordinates pick up a lead. 

“Guys you’re not going to like this.” Lance took a glance at the screen and couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the coordinates. 

“They're taking him to Zarkon’s ship!?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith has been captured, what does the Galra want with him? Find out next week!
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako


	4. Chapter 3: Taking Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The paladins go to rescue Keith, but what else is in store for them when they get there?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update everyone, my finals just ended yesterday, and I was working on this chapter all throughout today since I didn't know what dialogue to write at some points. 
> 
> I hope this chapter was worth the wait, and stay tuned for next chapter coming this week. Thank you everyone for the patience, and I hope you guys stick with us throughout this story =) 
> 
> Don't forget to check out my tumbler page for updates on any stories, and when they get delayed. I post frequent updates to ensure everyone that these stories are getting written and so that way they don't worry to much. 
> 
> I'm extremely grateful to collab with @Che1sealovesyouall on this story. It's her idea and I write each chapter while she corrects them. 
> 
> After we go over each chapter we talk over tumbler and discuss what's going to happen in the next chapter, and we've got lots of ideas for this fic. I'm glad that she asked me to collab with her on this story idea, and I'm glad we are getting such a positive response =) 
> 
> I want to thank everyone who took the time to review the last couple chapters, since all the reviews simply make my day, and show me that you guys are enjoying my works no matter if just me or if I collab with someone. 
> 
> I'd love to see fan art for my stories one day, but that's a bit of a long shot. I'm glad you guys love this story, and I can't wait for you guys to see whats in store for our favorite paladins =)

“What do they want with him!?” At this point Lance was flailing his arms about in hysteria. 

“Lance, can you calm down buddy. We are trying to figure it out now.” Hunk was the first to put a reassuring hand on his friend’s shoulder. Hunk never had to say much to calm Lance down, his presence alone would help him when he went wild. 

“Based off of Keith’s biology, he is part galra too. I’m thinking maybe they had an interest in the fact that he had their blood running through there veins.” Pidge was the next to speak as she reached up to push up her glasses, to remember that Lance had broken them. 

“Pidge, where’s your glasses?” Lance questioned as he noticed the missing accessory from his friends face. 

“It’s not important, but we have to figure out a game plan to go after Keith.” Pidge snapped as Lance shrunk back a bit, bumping into Hunk in the process. 

“Pidge, you said they are after Keith for his DNA. What doesn’t make sense is why now, when they could have come after him sooner. It doesn’t make much sense.” Shiro scratched his head with his right hand as he looked at the green paladin as if searching for more of an answer. 

“There is also the possibility of them capturing him because of you, Shiro. I’ve seen how protective you can be of Keith, and maybe they knew this. They might be using him to get to you so that we can hand over Voltron. After all, why would you not go after your little brother.” Pidge spoke as Shiro’s jaw dropped over. 

“Where did this brother thing come from?” Shiro questioned as Pidge furrowed her eyebrows. 

“What do you mean, aren’t you Keith’s older brother?” Shiro’s arms flew up in the air as he let out a long sigh. 

“We aren’t related at all, I’m just like an older brother to him. Keith never had a family, and I was just there for him at the Garrison. It’s been an ongoing mistake because of how close we are. The part that confuses me is the fact that we have two different last names, and yet people still assume this relation.” Lance’s eyes widened slightly at the sudden realization.

“If that’s the case, then wouldn’t that mean the Galra captured Keith under that same assumption.” The other paladins looked at each other in understanding as they turned to their leader. 

“Let’s go team.” 

“Right!” 

Everyone had gotten into gear as they prepared their lions. The plan was simple, they would split up and one team would target the right side of the ship while the second team would cover the left. Allura and Coran would be keeping an eye from a rondevu point so that way they had an easy escape. 

Pidge was still upset over her brother’s glasses and had gotten paired up with Hunk for this reason. Lance had never felt so hated before, he had asked Pidge multiple times what was wrong, but she refused to answer him. He just wanted to know what happened when he blacked out. He knew he did something to Pidge, she was acting way to weird for it to be a coincidence. 

Lance was partnered with Shiro, and the reason was quite obvious. Shiro didn’t trust Lance to be alone with Keith. Sometimes Shiro was a bit to easy to read for Lance’s liking, at least with Pidge it was a bit easier to pretend that everything was ok. Lance was only kidding himself insisting that nothing was wrong with him. 

He felt trapped within his own mind. Lance followed behind Shiro as they made their way through the countless hallways, hoping they’d run into a sign of Keith shortly. 

The shackles that hung by his feet weighed him down as he tried to catch his breath. He woke up only an hour ago, to be thrown right into a prison cell with shackles at his ankles and wrists. A surge of pain ran up his spine as he flinched. For once, he felt like being in constant fear of Lance was heaven sent compared to the pain he was feeling now. 

“I see our prisoner is awake.” A voice spoke up as Keith’s gaze followed the sound. 

“Zarkon?” Keith grunted as his eyes squeezed shut from another bout of pain that shot through him. 

“I see that the shackles are doing their job.” Zarkon laughed as Keith glared at the man they sought to defeat. 

“What do these shackles do?” Keith snapped as he felt another surge of pain run through him as he toppled over with his face now on the cold ground. 

“Those shackles are what’s helping us learn information about your DNA. Each moment, you feel a surge of pain course through you, but that’s us extracting different components in your DNA. We’ve used these on many alien’s with mixed blood, but a human/galran half-breed, that’s more interesting than any other half-breed we’ve encountered.” Zarkon licked his lips as Keith felt another surge of pain run through him. 

“I see you guy’s don’t really like to sit down and talk approach.” Keith smirked as he through his head back from another surge of pain.

“Once we get the needed information, the shackles will be removed, but we have more plans for you while you’re here. You better get use to being my pet.” Zarkon laughed as he left the room, not waiting for a response from Keith.  
“I’m nobody’s property, I’ve got to get out of here.” Keith whispered as another surge of pain coursed through his body sending him into an unconscious state. 

“Lance, I think I found something.” Shiro announced as he spotted a piece of fabric on the floor. It resembled that of Keith’s shirt, and made them wonder what could of happened to tear the fabric off. 

“We have to be getting close if a piece of Keith’s fabric is here.” Lance stated as his eyes gazed over at a door with a sign that appeared to in galran tongue. 

“I remember those words from when I was prisoner here. They used those terms a lot towards Matt and I, Keith has to be through that door. Come on, Lan..” Shiro started before he was knocked unconscious, before closing his eyes he spotted the blue paladin hovering over his body. 

“Thanks for the assist gramps. I’ll make sure I let ‘pretty boy’ know that you fought an admiral fight. I should have used this Bayard for something like this ages ago.” Lance laughed as he continued through the doors. 

His mind was hazy for a moment as his breathing picked up. Lance didn’t remember going through any doors and yet he was standing in front of Keith’s cell. Lance looked around the room to realize that Shiro was not with him, he clutched his head with the hand that didn’t carry the Bayard. He vaguely remembered blacking out and after that it was a blur. His eyes scanned the room further as he saw that Keith was in the cell wreathing in pain. 

“Keith!” Lance cried as he shot at the bars that confined his friend. The bars snapped from the impact of the shots as Lance ran into take a look at the shackles. Keith’s eyes fluttered open as his body reacted with out a moments notice. He flung himself away from Lance the best he could with the restraints connecting his hands and feet. 

“Stay away.” Keith spoke, the fear taking over any rational thought he had. 

“Keith, it’s me. Ya know the name’s Lance.” Lance reasoned as Keith backed away further, to be stopped by the wall. 

“You’re not Lance.” Keith snapped as Lance’s eyes teared up from the outburst from Keith. Keith and him had finally become close enough to be considered friends, and now what ever happened between them was going to ruin any bond or connection they had made through there time out in space. 

“Keith, I honestly don’t know what’s been going on with me lately, but I promise that I didn’t mean to do what I did. Hell, I don’t remember what I did in the first place.” Lance cried as the tears started to fall down his face. 

Keith looked up for a moment as his eyes widened. Lance was crying, and considering the past few days, Lance wouldn’t have done this under normal circumstances. 

“Lance, what ever your game is, it’s not funny anymore. You’ve been acting weird for a while, and I don’t appreciate you coming into my room and doing that without my consent. You’re really scaring me Lance.” Keith admitted as his cheeks flushed pink from admitting that he was scared of the blue paladin. 

“I don’t want to scare you; I would never want to hurt you. You mean to much to me.” Lance snapped as his hands shot up to cover his mouth. His cheeks turned red as he realized what had just come out of his mouth. 

“I mean to much to you?” Keith questioned with a small smile before his head shot back again in pain. Lance ignored the embarrassment for a moment as he ran over to Keith’s side to examine the shackles he wore. 

“This may hurt a bit.” Lance warned as he steadied his bayard and shot the shackles until they broke off of Keith’s limbs. 

“That wasn’t as bad compared to the constant pain I’ve felt for hours. We have to get out of here, it’s only a matter of time before he gets here.” Keith yelled as Lance offered his hand to Keith. 

“Do you trust me?” Lance’s smile made Keith’s fears melt away as he placed his palm in his hand. He smiled back until he noticed the sudden change in his facial expression. Keith let out a yelp as he was pulled to Lance’s chest and held close to him. 

Keith glared at his chest as he pushed him away with as much force as he could muster, but the hand remained on his wrist and brought him back to slap him in the face with the free hand. Keith’s hand rose to his now red cheek as his bangs covered his eyes. 

“’Pretty boy’ you made the wrong decision to push me away. I’m starting to lose my patience with you. All I want is you, is that not what you want?” Lance grinned as Keith glared at him. This was not the Lance he remembered nor the Lance he had wanted. Lance said he’d never hurt him, he could barely figure out what was real and fake anymore. 

Two galran men ran into the room as Lance glared at them from the corner of there eyes. The men shrunk back but stood there ground. 

“We were given orders to take you to, Zarkon.” The first one commanded. 

“You will not resist us blue paladin.” The second one followed suite.

“All of you seem to think I’m this blue paladin or whatever. I’m no blue paladin, and who the hell is this Zarkon?” Lance questioned as Keith looked up at Lance with widened eyes. Had Lance forgotten what they’ve been doing up in space all this time. Their sole purpose was to defeat Zarkon, and he’s been driving blue for as long as he can remember. 

“Come with us and you shall find out then.” The first galran man murmured as they gave each other a look of understanding. 

“Lead the way.” Lance smiled as Keith grabbed his ankle.

“Lance, what are you doing?” Keith whispered as Lance kicked his hand away from him. 

“Now you want me ‘Pretty boy’, well to late now I guess. I really wish you’d stop calling me Lance.” Lance glared at the boy as his brows furrowed at the comment. 

“But, that’s your name.” Keith whispered as the galran men picked Keith up from the ground and lead the two down a couple hallways. The only question on Keith’s mind was where was everyone else. 

“Lance!” Hunk was the first to call out for there companions. 

“Shiro!” Pidge called out next as she looked around the empty hallway they were in. 

“No good, and we aren’t getting a response through the helmets.” Hunk explained as he tried once more to reach them. 

“Wait, what’s over there.” Down the hallway a body was laying faced down on the ground, in what appeared to be a black paladin suit. 

“Shiro!” Hunk called as they ran to the figure and lifted his unconscious form up. Shiro’s eyes fluttered open as he groaned from the sudden movement. 

“Hunk, Pidge it’s good to see you.” Shiro commented as he lifted his arm to hold his head which was experiencing a small headache. 

“It’s good to see you too, but where’s, Lance?” Hunk questioned as the older man scowled.

“Lance was the one who knocked me out.” Shiro growled as Pidge and Hunk looked at each other.

“Lance did?” 

Keith and Lance had entered the room that Zarkon was in as Keith was forced to the ground my the galran men. Lance was being cold to him suddenly and it didn’t seem to bother him that these men were hurting Keith in anyway. When they entered, Zarkon turned around from his previous position as he takes a look at the two paladins that had been brought to his room.  


“Why did you bring the young Halfling here? We weren’t done with the experiments as of yet, and I see we have a young blue paladin here as well to visit.” Zarkon glared at his employees as he turned to look at Lance with a smile.

“I’m not this blue paladin or whatever, so stop calling me that.” Lance snapped as Zarkon looked intrigued with the newcomer. 

“Oh what is your name then newcomer?” Zarkon laced his fingers together as he awaited his reply. 

“My name is Malo, I’m not this blue paladin.” Lance exclaimed as Keith’s eyes widened upon learning the new info.

“Split personality, you aren’t Lance. Thank god.” Keith sighed as he stared at the ground, but he got kicked in the stomach by one of the guards. 

“Be respectful of our lord, half-breed.” One of the men scowled as Keith cried out in pain. The person known as Malo glared at the men as he appeared in front of the one who had kicked Keith. 

“No one hurts ‘Pretty boy’ but me got it.” Malo smirked as he grabbed the mans neck and squeezed. The man reached out for air as Zarkon laughed as he watched the blue paladin in interest. Keith watched as Lance’s body was used to choke the galra and he couldn’t bare to see his friend act this way. 

Lance was kind and considerate and would have never hurt someone like this, but Keith also didn’t know a whole lot about the paladin. A part of him wondered if he would have ever hurt anyone over his friends, since he’s only just recently become Lance’s friend. 

“Blue paladin, or should I say Malo. You must have been bitten by the Red Death. Those spiders are notorious to the planet that you paladins had gone on a mission on. There bite is venomous but can also trigger alternate personalities in more serious cases. There is a cure for it however.” Zarkon mentioned as Keith’s gaze shot to him. 

“An antidote.” Keith smiled at the thought of giving Lance his life back. 

“I don’t need no antidote; this body is mine. So is ‘Pretty boy’, I don’t need anything else.” Lance glanced over his shoulder at Zarkon as he dropped the solider. 

“Of course not, but the paladins will find out sooner or later. They will give you this antidote and you will go away and this ‘Pretty boy’ of yours, you’ll never see him again.” Zarkon laughed as Lance’s eyes darkened. 

“I thought I was pretty manipulative, but you take the cake. I was going to suggest a deal.” Lance smiled as Zarkon looked on in interest.  
“What do you have in mind?” Keith looked between the two with wide eyes as Lance smiled wide. 

“It’s simple, once they find out the truth they will want to get the antidote. I want you guys to get it first, and in return you will get Voltron and a new asset to the team. Once you obtain the one thing they are after and prevent them from ever obtaining this antidote. You will gain me, and ‘Pretty boy’ here.” Lance smiled as Keith forced himself into a standing position.

“What makes you think I’d leave with you?' Keith snapped. 

“You have no choice, you’re mine and nobody is going to take you away from me.” Lance snarled as Zarkon walked towards the blue paladin. 

“You have a deal, but I would also love to run more tests for this half-breed.” Lance considered him for a moment before walking towards Keith. 

“I suppose it’s ok as long as you get keep up your part of the bargain.” Lance smiled as Zarkon nodded in agreement. 

“One problem in your plan, what makes you think I’d let you accomplish this.” Keith said as he began to ran for the doors. He had to tell someone, anybody, they had to know the truth. Right as he made it to the door, he felt a sharp pain at his head as he fell unconscious. 

“Sleep tight, ‘Pretty boy’.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's now revealed that it's Lance's monster personality, Malo who's causing the trouble on the Paladins and Keith! The spider bite is the cause of all this and there appears to be an antidote for it, but it's on the planet the Paladins were on a mission on.
> 
> Fun fact: Malo means "bad" in Spanish, which matches the evil personality.
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako  
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long


	5. Chapter 4: Always Take Caution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith wakes up in a familiar place, was what he saw a dream or reality?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early update for everyone, and I hope everyone enjoys it! 
> 
> I have an alumni talent show for Thursday which is why the update is up so early. 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter, everything will become more intense from this point on. 
> 
> This chapter was fun to write but also a part of me was like don't hurt my baby boy Keith, but like I love angst so here we are. Can't wait for the next update! ;)

The darkness crept over him increasing him as if he were on fire. The memories blurred as his vision slowly came back. 

His eyes fluttered open as he looked around the room he was currently in. It was his room; it was as if he had never left. Did yesterday not happen? 

He’d like to believe his capture was a hoax. He had no memories from yesterday as if it didn’t happen. 

It must have been some kind of intense dream. “Keith, are you ok?” Keith looked over towards his door to see Shiro standing there, his brows knit together in concern. 

“Yeah, just kind of foggy to be honest.” Keith sat up a bit so that he could look at Shiro fully. “Do you remember the events from yesterday, and why you’re in your bed?” Shiro decided to approach the matter calmly, not wanting to scare Keith off into retreating into himself. 

He didn’t want to push matters if they made him uncomfortable in anyway. 

“Everything is kind of a blur to be honest, but it was all just a dream wasn’t it?” Keith smiled fondly which made Shiro almost regret telling him the truth of what had transpired. Keith deserved to know. 

“You were being carried by Lance.” 

Lance walked down the corridors of the spaceship with an unconscious Keith in his arms. His eyes were clouded with malice as he held Keith’s form closer to him. 

Nothing was going to take ‘Pretty boy’ away from him; he’d make sure of it. 

“Lance!” Lance looked up for a moment as he’s snapped out of his daze. He glances around the room frantically as he sees Keith in his arms. 

He didn’t once remember getting Keith from his cell nor walking with him through the ship. Shiro came charging towards him, anger prominent in his eyes as he took Keith out of Lance’s arms. 

“What did you do to him?” Shiro questioned him as he checked for Keith’s pulse to make sure it was still beating. Pidge and Hunk came up from behind Shiro as Lance turned to them in confusion. 

“I didn’t do anything; I don’t even remember how we got here.” Lance answered honestly as Shiro glared at the boy, not being able to stop his emotions from running wild. 

“Don’t say you didn’t, you’re the one who knocked me out before leaving after Keith.” Lance’s eyebrows rose, his eyes widened with slightly parted lips. 

He had wondered where Shiro had been when he ran into Keith in the cell, but he did not remember knocking their leader out. 

“I honestly don’t remember.” Shiro’s expression softened slightly as he gestured for Pidge and Hunk to lead Lance toward their lions. 

They needed to figure everything out, Lance clearly wasn’t himself, but Shiro couldn’t help but wonder if it’s all just a big charade. 

What if the Lance who knocked him out is his true personality? 

Keith’s eyes shoot up at the retelling of the story as he sprints out of his bed and out the door. Shiro’s voice traveling to him as he yells, “He’s in the healing pod!” 

Keith’s legs almost gave way a couple of times as he makes his way towards the healing pods. Keith wanders into the room as Shiro came in after him, probably giving chase as soon as he ran out. 

Keith’s right hand extends to bring his fingers to his temple, a headache forming as he cringes from the pain.Pidge and Hunk are standing around the pod, Pidge seems indifferent as she’s tinkering with what appears to be a rover look-a-like. 

Hunk on the other hand is fiddling with his hands as he keeps looking up to the healing pod that Lance is in. Once they had gotten back, Lance had collapsed and they felt the healing pod would help. 

Keith saunters over to them as Lance’s healing pod opens up with Keith running over to catch him on reflex. 

Lance’s eyes flap to an open as he looks up at Keith with reddened cheeks. His mind fuzzy as he caresses Keith’s right cheek causing Keith to blush from the contact. 

“Why do you always look so beautiful?” Lance complimented as Keith cleared his throat snapping Lance out of the daze he was currently in. “How are you feeling, are you ok?” Keith’s words came tumbling down as him as Lance helped himself out of Keith’s arms. 

“I’m fine.” That was all he managed to say as he caught Shiro glaring at him. 

“We need to talk, as a group.” 

“Shiro.” Keith spoke as Shiro shook his head, not wanting to hear any of it. “Lance, what’s going on with you lately? You haven’t been yourself.” Hunk spoke up as he put an arm around his friend’s shoulders. 

“I honestly don’t remember anything; I believe I’ve been acting like my usual self.” Lance argued as Pidge looked at him, almost contemplating whether or not she should open up about the glasses incident. 

“Lance, you’ve been putting Keith into uncomfortable situations. I don’t want him living in fear because of you.” Shiro snapped as Keith glared at their leader. 

Shiro was always protective of Keith since their days back at the garrison, but Keith liked to keep things private, not out in the open like they were now. 

“Keith, did I do something weird again to you? All I remember is holding you in my arms, but nothing before that. It’s kind of fuzzy.” Lance laughed slightly trying to lighten the mood. 

“No Lance, you didn’t, you’re fine.” Keith lied through clenched teeth. He didn’t want to believe that his memories were real. They were definitely dreams. 

“Are you sure?” Hunk patted Lance on the back as he looked at Shiro.

“He doesn’t remember, so let’s just let it go. We wouldn’t be able to get any information with him like this.” Hunk smiled hoping his smile would reassure everyone. 

“What about Pidge’s glasses? You broke them underneath your own feet.” Shiro snapped as he earned another glare from Pidge. She wanted to keep that information a secret. 

“Pidge, you said I didn’t do anything weird!” Lance snapped as Pidge swatted him away with her left hand. 

“I lied, but it’s not a big deal really.” Pidge smiled softly, trying her best to keep up the poker face. 

“It’s not ok, those glasses, they were-” Lance looked down at the floor as all the paladins except for Pidge turned to each other. 

They decided to leave the two alone for a moment as they all went throughout the room to do something else out of earshot. 

Keith however decided to head out to do some training, in hopes that whatever was going on between the two could be resolved. 

“Pidge, I’m sorry. I’ve been such a jerk and worst part if I don’t remember being the jerk.” Lance bowed his head towards the girl as she looked at him skeptically.

“Well, you seem to be really sorry about that so I guess I’ll forgive y- “Pidge was stopped mid sentence as she saw the malice within Lance’s eyes compared to his normal friendly appearance. 

“Forgive me? Let me tell you something, bean sprout. You have no idea who you’re going on with here. Besides who said I wanted to apologize, the glasses were hideous and deserves a nice break.” Lance laughed as Pidge glared at the boy. 

“You know what? Screw you, Lance!” Pidge screamed as the rest of the paladins turned around toward her in shock from the places they were in the room. 

At this time, Coran and Allura wander into the room to see an agitated Pidge running past them as Hunk and Shiro wander over to Lance. 

“Lance, why would you say that to Pidge!? She was about to forgive you!” Shiro snapped at Lance who looked up at Shiro with a smug smile. 

“Why would she? Besides she deserved it.” Shiro was boiling with anger as he stomped away after Pidge. 

“What’s your problem this isn’t you?!” Hunk snapped at his friend as Allura and Coran watched from the sidelines. 

At this moment Keith had walked in with his clothes sticking to him from his past training session, and shower. 

The way his clothes stuck to him however left little to the imagination, with his hair wet and forming around his face. His appearance would make anybody drop to their knees. 

“Wow ’Pretty boy,’ you’re not just pretty, but sexy too.” Lance licked his lips as Shiro and Pidge wandered back in at the exact moment. 

Shiro was furious at the comment and wanted to punch Lance square in the jaw. Keith’s face went flush as he glared at Lance, already knowing that nickname meant trouble. 

“Lance, better watch your tongue. Don’t want to say anything you might regret in front of the wrong people.” Shiro commented as he stood protectively in front of Keith. 

Keith, however, walked away from Shiro and towards Pidge to make sure she was ok, ignoring everyone in the room for a brief moment. 

“The things I would do to that body. Standing over him as he moans beneath me.” Lance glanced over at Shiro as he looked about ready to murder him. 

His glance shifted to Keith who stood up to look at him, the fear present in his eyes. 

This is what he wanted, that fear was so attractive on the red paladin. He wanted to see that expression more often. 

“Lance, that’s quite enough.” Allura stepped in front to give a better view of herself. 

She would not tolerate this behavior towards any of the paladins even if a specific paladin is the cause of it. 

“Oh, if it isn’t Girly, you guys make me sick.” Lance spat out as Allura froze for a moment, Coran stepping forward and pulling her back. 

“Lance, that’s enough, why are you doing this?!” Hunk snapped as Lance turned to his friends. Hunk noticed that his eyes weren’t their usual blue and were darker in appearance. 

“Lance, why would you say that to Allura?! She’s done nothing but make sure we all feel at home on this ship!” Keith snapped as he stomped over to Lance. 

Shiro had reached out for the red paladin but nothing was going to stop Keith on a warpath. 

Lance turned to Keith as he wrapped his arms around his body causing everyone to freeze. Lance smiled as he saw the expression he loved so much on Keith’s face. 

“Lance, what are y- “Keith froze as he felt a hand underneath his damp shirt. Shiro at this moment started to walk over to them but Coran had put a hand on Shiro’s shoulder and shook his head. 

“You must let the boy do this on his own, if it gets any worst then you may intervene, but I have faith that Keith can get out of this one on his own.” Coran smiled, he always knew that the paladins had potential. 

He trusted them fully but Shiro couldn’t stop himself from wanting to strangle Lance for feeling Keith up. 

“’Pretty boy,’ I wonder if you’re hard right now?” Lance questioned as his hand started to travel downward, Keith snapped out of his initial shock and grabbed his wrist and tossed it away from his body. 

“Lance, I don’t know what your game is, but I’m done!” Keith snapped before walking out of the room to head to his own place of solitude. 

He needed to clear his mind, and what better place than the comfort of his own room. 

“Lance, are you-?” Hunk had started as Lance ran out of the room away from everyone. Shiro’s head snapped over his shoulder as he attempted to grab his hood to stop him, but he narrowly missed. 

“You don’t think he went after Keith, do you?” Pidge questioned as the other paladins looked at each other. 

“Let’s hope not, otherwise Lance will be seeing his grave a little early.” Shiro cracked his knuckles. This was the first time they saw the ever so calm Shiro like this. 

“For someone who says you aren’t related, you sure do act like Keith’s brother majority of the time.” Pidge smiled smugly as Shiro looked down at the smaller paladin. 

“I’m only looking out for him, I’d do the same for you guys.” Shiro mentioned as Pidge gave him a look that clearly said, “Yeah right.” 

“I’m gonna go and keep an eye on Lance. First, I got to find him.” Hunk spoke up as he was the first to exit the room. 

“Let’s just hope this behavior doesn’t continue.“ Shiro spoke up as Coran stepped forward. 

“This is unlike the boy, maybe we should run some tests?” Coran suggested as Shiro looked at the older altean. 

“We will think about it, my fear is what if nothing’s wrong with him and this behavior is his true nature.” Coran looked at him quizzically. 

“You don’t actually believe that, do you?” Shiro looked down at the ground for a moment. 

“I don’t, but what choice do I have? He seems to be targeting Keith. I want to make sure he’s safe.” Pidge looks at her leader as she wanders off. She just hopes Lance isn’t in too much trouble. 

Keith paced around his room as he kept thinking about the events that plagued the back of his mind. 

That moment on Zarkon’s ship, he vaguely remembers it, but was it real? He wanted to know, but why couldn’t he remember.

Keith’s head shifted around as the doors opened revealing Lance. The person he had attempted to run away from. 

“What are you doing here?!” Keith snapped as Lance seemed to pick up on his distress, being able to read him so well. 

“Whatever you’ve been thinking about it wasn’t real, so this stops right now!” Lance snapped as Keith’s eyes widened. 

“How do you even know what I was thinking about if I didn’t mention it once?” Keith questioned as Lance’s smile turned upward into a smirk. 

“You didn’t have to, you’re easy to read is all.” Lance laughed as Keith attempted to run past him, Lance’s arm extended to block him from running as he walked forward pushing Keith back until he was sitting on his bed. 

“Now where do you think you're going, ‘Pretty boy?’” Lance says as he starts to walk towards him.

Keith’s mind had wandered as he began to think those memories might not be so farfetched anymore. 

Keith felt a hand go underneath his shirt once more as he elicited a moan from the contact. Before it was so easy to hold back with how shocked he had been but now, they were alone. 

Lance pushed him further down on the bed violently as he attacked his neck with his mouth, sucking at the pale skin. 

Keith turned his head slightly as he grabbed around for something that can help him out of this mess but there was nothing he could do. 

He was scared, he hated to admit it but he was and the thoughts of what Lance would do if he disobeyed plagued his mind. 

Lance’s sucking became more intense as he felt sharp canines brush against the skin, there was no doubt in his mind that there would be a large hickey on his neck tomorrow. 

Lance bit down harder on his neck as Keith let out a scream from the pain. Lance brought his head up and smiled as he managed to break skin and some blood oozed down from the mark. 

Lance leaned down to lick the blood away as Keith flinched started to push his head away from him. 

“’Pretty boy,’ it’s not nice to push loved ones away.” Lance glared as he slapped Keith’s face leaving a red handprint across his right cheek. 

Keith rubbed at the mark with his free hand that wasn’t being constrained by Lance. 

“Looks like you're mine now, ‘Pretty boy.’” Lance gets up from the bed and starts to walk out the door, Keith tries to hold back tears as he looks at Lance with a hurting and scared look on his face.

“Why me?” Keith questioned the boy as the he got off of the other and started to walk out the doors before giving one last look at his masterpiece. 

“Because I love seeing the fear in your eyes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It looks like Malo is getting worse by the minute! The Paladins have no idea what's in store for them, especially Keith who's suffering from it.
> 
> Be sure to check out what happens next chapter, things are just warming up!
> 
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long  
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako


	6. Chapter 5: Battle Royal, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance individually have rough nights, but the next morning can everything go back to normal after everything that was said and done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a part of three parter which involves the paladins in a fight against one another in order to fix broken bonds. The fighting doesn't take place this chapter but will happen in the following one, but a lot more aggressive. 
> 
> This is also the first chapter that Malo hasn't appeared except within imagery. We keep edging closer to a part in this story that I have no experience in writing since most things I've done I've kept pg-13. 
> 
> This will be new to me, but luckily Chelsea is here to help me with he corrections needed. I hope you guys love this chapter and I will be putting a warning label on the chapter coming up that involves those not so pg-13 scenes. That way anyone uncomfortable can skip through the parts since they will know its coming up. 
> 
> I also do plan to start my college au fic pretty soon, most likely when reaching the end for this story. I also would like to finish Out of line which is on chapter 3 and it's scheduled for 13 chapters in total. 
> 
> This story doesn't have an estimated amount it will end once we reach the climax of the story. And college au fic doesn't have a specified amount since it will go through college life, which will take place during the four years starting from freshman and going toward senior year. 
> 
> There will be different sexualities, and exploring ones. There will be trans-gendered characters, faked pregnancy, near death experiences and more. 
> 
> I have a lot planned for that one and I hope after reading this you will give this one a shot. I'm known for creating OC characters for my stories, but Lucy from Out of Line will be in this one but without her crush on Keith. 
> 
> She will start out liking Pidge rather and be a supportive character towards getting Keith and Lance together. 
> 
> Welcome to shameless self promotion, but anyway enjoy this story, and I hope you check out both mine and Che1seaLovesYouAll stories as well. Thank you for the overwhelming support!

The corridors were long and winding as Keith stood in the middle of them. He took a look around him as he saw each of the other paladins looking his way. He smiled as he ran for Shiro, whom started to walk away from him. 

“Shiro!” Keith called to him as he reached out with his hand. He could never seem to get close to him no matter how hard he ran. He looked over at Pidge and Hunk and attempted to run after them as well, but the same situation just kept happening. 

“Why are you walking away from me? I thought we were finally-” Keith stopped mid sentence as he saw Lance whom was standing right behind him. For the first time in a long time, Keith let out a long sigh of relief as he hugged the paladin. 

For some reason, Lance was the only paladin who wasn’t getting further away from him when he tried to get close. Keith looks up for a moment as he sees the usual smile that he’s grown to love on Lance’s face. He couldn’t help but bury his face into his chest as he felt content in his arms. 

Suddenly, Lance’s grip had tightened on Keith’s arms, Keith noticed as he glanced up at the blue paladin whose expression had changed once more to the crueler version of himself. 

Keith attempted to pull himself away from him, but each time became more desperate as Lance slowly turned into some type of monster. His body became a dark shadow of a creature, as he grew fangs and claws and had glowing yellow eyes. Keith let out a scream as he jumps up from his bed with sweat droplets beating down his face. 

“It- was a dream?” Keith glanced down as his hands as he combed one through his hair. He jumps up as the door opens to reveal Shiro who is disheveled. 

“Keith, are you ok?” Shiro questioned as he walked over to sit on his bed. 

“It was just a nightmare.” Keith’s words were short and to the point as Shiro smiled gently at him. 

“I’m glad everything’s ok, but it must have been one hell of a nightmare.” Keith’s body began to shake from the memory as Shiro’s eyes widened. Without hesitation he wrapped his arms around Keith to calm him down. 

“I’m sorry.” The apology had come from nowhere as Shiro slowly released the boy, but not without catching a glance at the purple bruises along his neck. 

“Where did you get those?!” Shiro’s voice had risen slightly, and it made Keith flinch from the sudden loudness. 

“Get what?” Keith tilted his head slightly to look at his leader, Shiro was seeing something, he wasn’t? 

“The marks on your neck.” Keith immediately went up to cover them as Shiro caught on to the obvious gesture. 

“It’s nothing.” 

“Keith, come on, I clearly saw them. That’s not nothing.” Shiro’s expression softened slightly with what looked to be hurt. He hated that Keith couldn’t open up to him about some things in his life. He felt they were close enough, but Keith was always hiding things from him even now. 

“I said everything’s fine.” Keith glared at him as he kept his hand covering up the marks. 

“Everything is clearly not fine. Was it Lance?” The name alone made Keith’s eyes widen and snap up to meet Shiro’s gaze.

“Should've figured it was Lance. Why are you protecting him?! He’s clearly hurting you.” Keith looked down at his legs, finding them more interesting in this moment. 

“Talk to me.” 

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Keith looks up to meet his gaze once more. “I’ll figure something out on my own.” 

“Are you sure about this?” Keith appears to contemplate this for a moment before nodding his head.

“Yes.” 

“I’m always here for you if you need anything, just don’t let it be too late.” Shiro states.

“Do you think I can’t handle this by myself, Shiro?” Keith looks aggravated as Shiro looks over at the boy with a look of confusion. 

“I never said that Keith, don’t twist my words around.” Shiro comments as Keith scoffs. Keith would never disobey Shiro, but for some reason he felt like Shiro was treating him like a child. Keith wasn’t a child anymore and wanted Shiro to know that. 

“Just stop treating me like a baby, I can fend for myself.” Keith snapped as Shiro’s facial features had contorted into anger. 

“Fine, but don’t come running to me when Lance hurts you again.” Shiro knew he didn’t mean it, neither of them did but he couldn’t stop himself from snapping. Shiro stormed out of the room next, not wanting to see Keith’s face after reacting the way he did. The one thing Shiro didn’t want was for Keith to hate him. 

Lance had been looking at himself for a couple hours as he examined his face. He knew something was wrong but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Whatever was going on, he was scaring Keith and he hated it. 

Ever since they had gotten closer, it was easier to talk to Keith then it was for anyone else. He could talk to Hunk like normal, but Hunk had heard all of his stories. Keith was the first other person he had opened up to over the course of the past few months. 

The fact that he had caused the normally ruthless Keith to live in fear had caused him to go into a state of panic. Especially since a few days prior to when all of this had started he had started to develop feelings for the red paladin. 

He could honestly say that he was in love with Keith, and probably had been for quite a while. This thought alone made him wonder if this was the reason why the target became Keith. 

Lance sighed as he looked up to the mirror once more, but this time he saw an image of himself but with a sinister smile and darker expression. Lance’s eyes widened as he punched the mirror, ignoring the glass shards that were now imbedded in his knuckles. 

He looked down at the sink as he gripped at his face with his hands. What had he just seen, what was going on with him? Lance slid down to the ground as he let silent tears fall from his eyes. He finally understood what Keith was so afraid of him, he’d be afraid of him to. 

The following morning, Hunk had prepared a good breakfast for everyone. His only hope was to ease tension between the other paladins, but only one thing was missing for them to fix their relationships. Hunk made his way over to Lance’s room as he knocked patiently on the door waiting for an answer. 

“Lance, it’s breakfast time.” Hunk called out, but upon not getting an answer he opened the door himself. He peered around the room but didn’t find Lance anywhere in it. He noticed the door to the restroom open as he made his way over there to find Lance on the floor with dried tears on his face, and glass in his knuckles. 

“Lance!” Hunk exclaimed which woke the boy up. Hunk already picked up his hand and started to get rid of the glass shards, hoping to god it wasn’t infected. 

“Hunk, buddy, what are you doing here?” Lance smiled weakly as Hunk glared at him.

“I should be asking you that.” Hunk muttered as he continued to clean and inspect the wound. 

“I’m fine. Well, kind of.” Lance smiled slightly as he squeezed his eyes shut from the pain of each glass shard being removed. 

“What’s wrong? This isn’t like you.” Hunk mentioned as he started to wrap the wound with some gauze and bandages that he had found I the cupboard. 

“I saw my reflection; I finally know why Keith is so afraid of me, and he probably hates me.” Lance let more tears fall down his face as Hunk mentally freaked out, not wanting Lance to cry. 

“Lance, I know you have feelings for Keith, but he doesn’t hate you. He is scared of you, but he’d never hate you.” Hunk commented as he laid a reassuring hand on his friend’s shoulder. 

“How did you know about my feelings for mullet head?” Lance shot straight up as Hunk chuckled. 

“We are best friends remember, plus you make it kind of obvious. Yesterday you literally commented on how beautiful he was.” Hunk laughed. 

“Don’t remind me, I was in such a daze.” Lance covered his face which by this time was as red as a fire engine. 

“Aside from those feelings, what else is bothering you?” Hunk questioned as Lance looked at him with a small smile. 

“I looked in the mirror, and what I saw was a reflection of myself peering back at me.” Lance commented.

“That doesn’t seem like a reason to punch the mirror. You’re not that ugly.” Lance laughed slightly.

“Very funny Hunk, but I punched the mirror because of the person staring back at me. It wasn’t me, it almost felt like a different person. They had this dark look about them but with me face. What’s wrong with me?” Lance questioned his best friend as Hunk patted his back. 

“I’m always here for you, but maybe some time today we should run some tests. It’s starting to become a bit serious now.” Hunk commented. 

“Maybe it would be for the best. I just want to know what’s wrong with me.” Lance agreed as his stomach growled. 

“First, let’s get some breakfast in you.” Hunk smiled but Lance frowned at the prospect of seeing everyone. 

“Hunk, everyone hates me now.” Lance sighed as he brought his knees up to let him rest his head on them.

“Not if I can help it.” Hunk smiled as he dragged Lance along to the dining area despite his protests. They arrive at the dining hall but as soon as he enters he feels all eyes on him, albeit very angry ones. 

“So, Lance is sorry about yesterday no matter how wrong of him it was, we should forgive him for it.” Hunk smiled as he tried to be peacekeeper among them. 

“Listen, I know I messed up but every time stuff like this happens, I black out. I don’t even remember doing any of well, whatever I did yesterday.” Lance commented as Pidge was the first to stand up. 

“That doesn’t excuse you being a dick.” Pidge commented as Shiro looked at Pidge in shock. 

“Language.” He commented silently, but he too was a bit angry at Lance, especially after seeing what he had done to Keith. Speaking of which, Keith had not arrived yet had he? Just as Shiro thought about him, Keith walked through the doors with a scarf wrapped around his neck, probably to cover the marks. 

“Hey, what did I miss?” Keith questioned as Lance turned to him with the biggest smile he had worn in a little while.

“Keith, I’m so sorry. Don’t know what I did but I’m honestly so sorry.” Lance whined as he jumped on the boy, hugging him tightly. He missed this so much. 

“Lance, get off of him now.” Shiro had jumped up from the table the moment he had hugged Keith. Lance didn’t even notice that Keith had stiffened from the contact. He really was afraid of him. 

“I’m sorry.” Lance said quietly as Keith looked at him with a small smile. He remembered this Lance very well, but the other one scared him. It would be ok to just to ruffle his hair right? Just as Keith thought about it Shiro jumped down Lance’s throat which was unlike him. 

“Lance, what you did yesterday wasn’t right and I’m sorry but it’s hard to forgive you for some things.” Shiro’s gaze landed on Keith who went to grab at his scarf which didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the crew.

“Keith, why do you have the scarf?” Pidge was the first to ask. Keith glared at Shiro as everyone else gave him a funny look. 

“Shiro, just stop.” Keith snapped as Pidge looked at him with furrowed brows.

“Keith, you never answered my question?” Pidge commented as Keith glared at her which caused her to shrink back in her seat. 

“Paladins, enough of this. We need to learn to forgive each other.” Allura commented as Pidge glared at her for a moment.

“Like your one to talk, you didn’t forgive Keith for being Galra till recent. Imagine how he felt.” Pidge snapped but regretted saying anything as she looked at the distraught look on the princess's face. 

“Pidge, that’s quite enough.” Shiro said as he put a hand on her shoulder to calm down her wild emotions. 

“This all started because I’m here, I shouldn’t be here Hunk.” Lance commented as Hunk stood in front of his best friend.

“Are you guys going to let your feelings get in the way of how you feel about Lance? Lance has done so much for this team, and now you're treating him like the goddamn plague. Even Keith isn’t being that cruel.” Hunk yelled at them as Keith looked up at the mention of his name. 

“That’s enough, to the training deck. You paladins have a lot of pent up anger, so best be served on the battlefield.” Allura spoke up as she gestured toward the door. 

“Allura is right, there’s only one way to fix this.” Shiro said as they all retreated the dining hall. Lance’s stomach growled once more as he looked longingly at the breakfast Hunk made. He figured he should follow the rest of the paladins. 

Keith saw this and grabbed a piece of bacon from the table. Hunk had been perfecting his skills in the kitchen and was able to make some quality earth dishes with the alien ingredients he had. Keith ran after Lance and in a stroke of determination he placed a hand on his shoulder and offered him the piece with a smile. 

“Bacon?” Lance smiled as he looked at the food item in front of him. 

“Figured you’d want a pick me up. Can’t say I never did anything nice for you.” Keith looked away as he dropped the food item in Lance’s awaiting hands as he ran after the other paladins. 

Lance smiled as he ate the piece with satisfaction. He couldn’t believe Keith was still talking to him after everything that had transpired between them. He felt his heart beat faster at the gesture as he chased after the red paladin as well. 

Keith remembered everything that had happened between them on that ship. He knows this is the real Lance now, but he still needed proof to this reality. He could figure this out on his own, and nobody was going to stop him from saving Lance. 

‘I’m going to save him.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like the team has to settle this in a spar match, will it work or no? Find out next week!
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako  
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long


	7. Chapter 6: Battle Royal, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone battles it out, but could it be possible to reveal to much to each other?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in the update, I had a lot going on this week, so it was hard to sit down and write for it since I was running back and forth with errands and such. I'm happy to get this story updated today and if you ever wonder when an update is going to be delayed, don't forget to check both mine and Che1seaLovesYouAll 's tumbler pages.

“Paladins, it’s come to my attention that the only way to break the tension between all of you is for everyone to spar against one another. Everyone is to fight with whom they have a conflict with, I hope that this will fix whatever’s going on with all of you.” Allura had stated, her eyes scanning the room, and landing on Lance for a bit to long for comfort. 

“I have a lot of pent up rage so this will be fun, who’s my lucky opponent?” Pidge was the first to speak with her Bayard and armor ready to go. The only things they chose to forgo were their helmets. 

“Well, all of you seem to be having issues so maybe there’s a way for you to choose who your opponent is?” Allura suggested as the other paladins looked at each other in hesitation. 

“What about a game of rock, paper, scissors?” Shiro suggested as the other paladins look skeptical at first. 

“Hmh, well Pidge seems amped up so why not have her go against Lance and have her battle first?” Coran piped up as he turned to the green paladin whom took a glance at Lance. 

“I’ve got no complaints with that idea.” Lance looked down at Pidge and felt a twinge of guilt. He wondered what he had done to cause this type of reaction in his friend. 

“Ok, remember this is to help get rid of any pent of tension. I don’t want to see you out to kill each other.” Allura spoke as she gestured for them to start their battle. Pidge smiled as she got into her position, she wouldn’t let Lance win. 

Both paladins got into position and began their battle. Pidge ran straight for Lance as she executed a perfect jump to allow herself to swing her Bayard at Lance’s head. Lance easily dodged the incoming attack and went on the defensive. 

Unlike Hunk and him, no one else possessed a gun as their Bayard. Lance was afraid to hurt them if he used it and resorted to just dodging every attack. Pidge swung again as Lance kept backing up with each forceful swing that came his way. 

“Why-won’t-you-fight-back?!” Pidge snapped in-between breathes as she dropped to her knees in front of the blue paladin. 

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Pidge’s eyes snapped up to meet his gaze as she grinded her teeth. 

“Why does it fucking matter? You’ve already hurt me, don’t start pretending like you actually care!” Pidge snapped as the other paladins including Lance looked at her in shock. 

“What does that word mean?” Allura questioned as Shiro placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Nothing that you should concern yourself with, plus Pidge should know not to say that word.” Shiro’s dad mode kicked in as Pidge cringed at the tone of his voice. 

“Point is, I don’t know what your problem has been, but you’ve destroyed my brother’s glasses and then you said some awful things to me when I was about to forgive you. I don’t understand what’s going on with you lately but I can’t take it anymore.” Pidge by this point had let a few tears slip from her eyes. Lance had wanted to go up and hug the poor girl but he decided against it. 

“Pidge, I want to know what’s going on. I honestly don’t remember any of the stuff I did. I black out and that’s it, once that happens I don’t know what’s going on around me. I didn’t even know that I broke your glasses till Shiro brought it up.” Lance smiled in hopes that Pidge would believe him. 

“I want to believe you Lance, but I just can’t.” Pidge squeezed her eyes tightly as she got up from the floor and walked away to stand next to Allura. Lance’s gaze followed her as he looked down at the floor with clenched fists. 

He deserved this, Lance knew that but he had hoped that she would forgive him. Lance already knew that he had done wrong, but he didn’t remember it. What kind of excuse was that? 

“Well Pidge and Lance’s fight is over, who’s next?” Allura spoke up.

“Rock, paper, scissors or are we all just volunteering to go now?” Keith questioned which made Lance look up at him. Throughout all of this, Keith and Hunk had been the most understanding of the group; however, he knows that Keith was hiding some of the things that he had done to him. He just wishes everything could get back to normal before he did something he’s regret. 

“I suppose so, Coran how about you make a suggestion?” Shiro mentioned to the older Altean. 

“Well, it seems you and Hunk have some tension. I’d suggest you two go next.” Coran mentioned as Shiro looked over toward the yellow paladin who glared at him. Hunk never gave that type of look to anyone. 

He was the heart of the team so seeing that type of look sent chills down his spine as they got into position. Hunk was forgoing his bayard, suggesting that this was a fight now meant for weapons. It wasn’t about the tension it was about defending his best friend. 

The fight began as Hunk charged at Shiro, Shiro stood his ground and blocked the attack. The power behind it pushed Shiro back a bit as he tried to hold the yellow paladin the best he could. 

Hunk was the strongest out of all of them, and it was made more obvious when he pushed the black paladin back a couple feet with just sheer strength. Shiro knocked his arms off as he ran around the yellow paladin going for a hit at the back, but Hunk spun around and blocked the upcoming attack and threw Shiro across the room. 

“Shiro!” Keith called instinctively. He was so used to the black paladin that it had become a habit of his when ever he was injured in anyway. 

“Shiro, I don’t want to hurt you, but Lance isn’t doing this on purpose. I believe my best friend, there’s nothing wrong with him.” Lance looked up at Hunk with a bright smile plastered on his face for the first time in ages. 

“I never said there was, but what he’s done to Keith isn’t right.” Shiro snapped as Keith glared at their leader. He hoped that Shiro would keep his big mouth shut and not mention the hickey on his neck. 

“I get that feeling like he’s doing some things that scares Keith, but what could he have possibly done to piss you off this much?” Hunk questioned as he sauntered over to his leader.

“He gave Keith a hickey, and I doubt that he wanted it.” Shiro spit out as Keith backed away from the group. Pidge was the first to wander over to Keith, getting ready to yank off the scarf that’s been on his neck. 

“Keith, show me your neck.” Pidge demanded, she was already borderline of hating Lance. If he did anything else to Keith, she’d lose it. 

“It’s a lie.” Keith muttered as Lance came up from behind him. The sudden presence made the boy jump as Lance took the opportunity to yank off the scarf to reveal the purple, and darkened flesh. 

“I did that to you?” Lance questioned as Keith nodded with flushed cheeks. He was embarrassed, he couldn’t believe Shiro would say that. 

“Lance, what’s wrong with you?” Pidge snapped as Lance shook his head, eyes wide with fear.

“I don’t-”Lance stopped mid sentence as Coran stepped in-between everyone. 

“Paladins, enough fighting. Shiro I’d like you and Lance to fight next. I’m hoping that all of this will solve all of the differences between all of you.” Hunk walked away as he gave Lance a sympathetic look as he passed. 

Lance was now going to go against the person he once looked up to as his hero. What else could possibly go wrong?

Lance stood still for a moment, hesitating to make the first move. Shiro, however; immediately charged at his opponent but his arm was glowing? Lance didn’t expect Shiro to use his arm against him, but maybe the man was that angry at him to not care.

Lance dodged each shot that Shiro had taken at him, not wanting to attack in the slightest. Shiro took one last blow and managed to hit Lance in the face, knocking him over and onto the ground. A bruise began to form where he had been hit as his hand raised up to feel the damaged flesh. 

“Lance, I don’t want to hurt you but what you did to Keith-.” Shiro looked down at the ground with clenched fists. He regretted hitting Lance as hard as he did, but another part of him told him that he deserved it. Keith had been through so much because of this boy, and yet he had forgiven him. Shiro couldn’t bring himself to do that, even though he knew he had to for the sake of the team. 

“I don’t remember what I did, I don’t want this. I don’t want to hurt anyone!” Lance yelled as Shiro leaned down next to the boy. His hand reached out to him but then he immediately brought it back to his side. 

He struggled in his mind between wanting to help Lance, and letting him suffer the way Keith did. Sometimes he wondered if what the Galra did affect him, causing him to think the way he did, but he couldn’t blame the galra for the way he’s treating Lance right now. 

Shiro stood up, staying silent as he walked away from Lance; Hunk went up to his friend as he helped him up. Lance was grateful for Hunk and leaned into his friend’s vast support. 

“Ok, next I’d like to see Pidge and Hunk.” Coran gestured toward the battle field as the two of them walked out. Neither seeming to budge from their spot, they seemed to be thinking rationally for a moment. 

“Pidge, I’m not going to fight you.” Hunk said as Pidge nodded in agreement.

“I’m sorry Hunk but I can’t forgive Lance, especially after seeing the hickey on Keith’s neck.” Pidge snapped as Keith shrunk into himself even more than he had been previously. 

“I understand that but that version of Lance isn’t the real him.” Hunk mentioned as Pidge glared at the boy.

“Hunk, you’re letting your friendship with him cloud your judgment.” Hunk looked down at his feet for a moment before bringing his eyes up to meet Pidge’s. 

“I think my judgment is just right. All of you are treating him like the plague, but I know that’s not the Lance that I know. The Lance I know would never hurt Keith because-”Hunk stopped mid sentence as he covered his mouth. He had nearly revealed Lance’s biggest secret. 

“Because why?” Pidge questioned with furrowed brows. 

“I can’t say.” Hunk muttered as Lance blushed from the realization of what Hunk almost said. 

“Why wouldn’t he hurt me?” Keith questioned giving everyone a better look at his bruised neck. 

“Keith, that looks really bad.” Pidge muttered as Keith’s hand shot up to cover the marks.

“Answer the question, Hunk?” Hunk looked away from Keith and took a look at Lance who was gesturing with his arms to keep his mouth shut about it.

“That’s for Lance to say.” Hunk mentioned as Lance looked ready to murder his friend.

“Lance?” Keith questioned as Lance looked away from his beautiful eyes. 

“Coran, don’t we want to continue the fight?” Lance did his best to get Keith’s gaze off of him. 

“Well, Shiro and Keith seem to be having a lot of tension. I figured they can fight it out next.” Coran smiled and winked at Lance. Lance had a sense Coran already knew his secret and he couldn’t be more grateful for the man to get the attention off of him. 

“Keith.” Shiro stated as Keith turned to him readying his Bayard. 

“Shiro.” Keith took the opportunity to charge first swinging his sword at Shiro’s feet. Shiro jumped it and swung with his glowing arm which Keith ducked under. 

Keith then ran around Shiro to swing from behind but Shiro parried it with his metal arm and knocked Keith backward before running towards him and aiming for the gut. Keith did a backflip to dodge the oncoming attack and swung again with his blade which managed to get a knick in Shiro’s paladin armor. 

“Keith, not bad, you’ve certainly imp-“ Shiro stopped as he dodged another attack by Keith. 

“I want you to stop treating me like a child!” Keith snapped as Shiro looked at the younger paladin with wide eyes. 

“I’m not treating you like a child, I’m just looking out for you.” Keith glared at him and pushed him back with his hands. 

“You are though, locking me in my room to keep me safe, ready to protect me when you know I can take care of myself. I get that you’re looking out for me but you’re not my older brother, or my father so stop acting like it!” Keith snapped as Shiro looked down at the floor. 

“If that’s what you want, I can’t stop you. I want what’s best for you, Keith.” Shiro shared a small smile as he opened his arms for a hug. Keith obliged that they embraced each other. 

Lance felt a surge of pain run through him for a moment as he began to feel slightly dizzy. He put a hand on his heart; his heart was beating steadily but he felt dizzy all of a sudden. 

Everyone’s words sounded like gibberish as he tried to hone in on what was going on around him. Before he knew it, he was paired with Keith last, Keith came at him with his sword and he dodged each attack trying to steady his breathing, until he blacked out once more. 

“Why hello ’Pretty boy,’ did you miss me?” Lance smiled as Keith’s eyes widened.

“Malo.” He whispered as Malo smirked grabbing onto Keith’s neck and bring him close. Watching how he struggled in his grip. 

“Bingo.” He whispered as he took his other arm and backed it up to come crashing down across Keith’s face. Everyone’s eyes widened at the sight the only voice that was heard was a screaming Shiro, yelling out to his friend.

“Keith!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh, Malo has returned! What's Malo gonna do now? Find out next week!
> 
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long  
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako


	8. Chapter 7: Battle Royal, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk does some digging to find out what's wrong with his best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update. School started up this past week for a summer course and I need to pass it in order to graduate on time. I love you guys for supporting us on this story, and also get ready cause the chapter of all chapters is coming up next week.

“Keith!” Shiro’s voice was the loudest of the group as they shouted his name. Another swing to Keith’s already bruised face and he was on the ground yet again, not moving an inch. 

Lance’s arm reacted fast as he lifted Keith up by the collar of his armor to land yet another punch to his wounded face. Shiro glared at the transaction and began to charge over to them but Allura’s hand found his shoulder and stopped him. 

“Allura, he’s hurting him.” Shiro barked back as Allura shook her head.

“I know, but this is Keith’s fight with Lance. You just made amends, he doesn’t want to be treated like a child. If you go over there, it will make it worse.” Pidge and Hunk looked to each other for a moment before glancing at Keith who was unmoving in Lance’s arms. They believed in Allura, but they also didn’t want to see Keith hurt anymore then he already was. 

Just as Lance’s fist was about to make contact with the already bruised flesh, a hand had shot up and caught his wrist mid punch. Lance’s eyes widened as he watched Keith grab his wrist and push back at it. Keith was staring up at him with his bang covered eyes, he looked determined and ready to fight off adrenaline. 

“I’m not afraid of you.” Keith grunted under his breath as he managed to shove Lance away from him. 

“You’re shaking form says otherwise, ‘Pretty boy’.” Lance noted as he gestured to his wobbling legs. 

“I’m not scared.” Keith yelled as he charged at Lance with his fists. Lance dodged each swing skillfully as his expression contorted into anger. 

“You’re really testing my patience ‘Pretty boy’.” Lance scoffed as he grabbed onto Keith’s wrist after a couple swings and held him in place. 

“You don’t scare me.” Keith kept repeating it like a mantra as he struggled in Lance’s grasp. 

“You need to be taught a lesson, and learn your place.” Lance bent his wrist back as Keith yelped in pain. Lance then took that opportunity to pull Keith closer so that his movements were constricted. 

Keith couldn’t move from his spot as one after the other he was beaten up from all the oncoming attacks. He could feel his face begin to swell up from all the attacks. 

“Lance, this isn’t you!” Hunk yelled as Pidge by this point was shaking from the scene. 

“Screw it, I don’t care if Keith stops talking to me. I’m not just going to stand by and let him get beaten up.” Shiro yelled as he charged at Lance with his mechanical arm. His hand reached eye level as Lance’s expression changed and he stepped back to fall onto the floor. 

“Shiro, but wasn’t I fighting Keith?” Lance looked around until his eyes landed on Keith. 

“Keith, who did that to you?” Everyone in the group was looking at him with dark expressions on their faces. Keith looked up in the direction he believed Lance was as his eyes had been swollen and prevented him from seeing anything. 

“Lance, you’re back.” Keith responded with a smile as Shiro kneeled down to pull Keith face over to look at the bruises. 

“We need to get you to a healing pod to get the swelling down.” Shiro commented as he frowned in Lance’s direction. 

“I didn’t mean-Whatever I did, I promise- I’m sorry.” Lance struggled to find the words as he reached out for Keith but his hand was immediately swatted away from Shiro’s hand. 

“Shiro, what did you do?” Keith questioned as he struggled to see what was going on around him. 

“I’m sorry, but Lance you should go.” Shiro looked at the ground as Keith glared in the direction he believed Shiro was which was in front of him. 

“It’s not his fault!” Keith snapped as everyone looked at Keith with furrowed brows.

“He beat you up, he’s the reason you can’t even see right now.” Shiro couldn’t believe what he was hearing. After everything that he did, Keith was forgiving him just like that? 

“It’s not him. He would never hurt me.” Keith replied. 

“What do you mean by that?” 

“It’s nothing.” Keith snapped as he got himself off the ground and stormed off. Luckily Pidge had been there to guide him out of the place and to a healing pod. Shiro attempted to run after him but was stopped by Coran.

“The boy needs space. He’s been through a lot today.” Shiro nodded solemnly. 

Hunk saw this interaction and looked towards the doors, and back at Lance who was shedding tears. Something wasn’t right with his best friend, and he was going to do something about it. Hunk walked over to Allura to ask her about the planet they had traveled to those few days prior. 

“Allura, what do you know about that planet we visited a couple of weeks ago?” Hunk questioned the princess.

“Not much I’ll be honest, why do you ask?” Allura questioned as Hunk swallowed hard.

“I’m going to need time to head back there. I’m trying to find out what’s wrong with Lance, but don’t tell anybody where I went. If they ask, tell them I went to look for food ingredients.” Hunk explained.

“Your loyalty to the blue paladin is remarkable. I will not say a word, but please find out soon. I can’t lose anybody else. I had lost my father and all of you have become my family. I don’t want to lose anybody else.” 

“Allura, you have my word. No one else is going anywhere.” Hunk promised as Allura nodded.

“You may take a leave to the planet. I will park the Castleship on Balmera, this way when you get back you can see Shay.” Allura smiled as she watched Hunk shrink back with red cheeks.

“She’s just a rock that I admire very much.” Hunk argued as Allura giggled. 

“Be back soon, Hunk. We will wait for your return.” Allura smiled as Hunk took that opportunity to get to his lion. 

He wouldn’t let anything happen to Lance, no matter what. He climbed into his lion as he flew out of the hangar and toward the planet they had been to. He remembered the planet was quite dark, and that whatever bit Lance was a spider that resembled a black widow. 

Hopefully, he can get information from the locals. That is if there are any other inhabitants on the planet. Once he landed, he made his way around the planet, careful not to run into the spider. He can’t afford to be effected the same way Lance was. 

As he wandered through the darkness, he found his way to a small village with what appeared to be people. The aliens of this planet resembled humans to a certain extent minus the small horns at the top of their heads. 

Other than that they appeared normal. He wandered over to them as he tapped a nearby female alien on the shoulder. She turned around with her blue hair moving with her as she turned. She was quite tall and she had grey markings under her eyes and around her nose. 

“May I be of assistance?” The female alien questioned as Hunk looked up to her. 

“Yes, my name is Hunk and I’m one of the Paladins of Voltron. My friend got bit by some spider on your planet, and I’m just curious if you know much about this spider?” Hunk cringed once he said who he was. He didn’t quite know why he felt the need to announce himself. 

“It is nice to meet you Hunk, paladin of Voltron, my name it Atheros. As for the spider you speak of, what is a spider?” Atheros questioned the paladin. 

“Are they not called spiders on your planet?” 

“Maybe if you explain what this spider looks like, I might be able to of more help.” Atheros explained as Hunk thought for a moment on how he would explain this. 

“So it has about eight legs, completely black with a red splotch on it’s back and it’s pretty small.” Hunk did his best to explain what a spider was as Atheros eyes widened.

“The Red Death?!” Atheros shrieked as everyone in the village upon hearing the name ran back into their houses and leaving their stalls. 

“What are they so scared of? What is this thing?” Hunk questioned as Atheros dragged the paladin inside, making sure to lock the doors behind her. 

“The Red Death has terrorized my people for so long. One bite of it’s venom and you would think you’d die, but a worse fate is brought upon you. It will make the worst part of you awaken and with no control you attack the people you care about most in this world. Most victims will often target a specific people but those people will get the brunt of the hostility caused by the venom. Everyone else, will deal with the verbal abuse, but that specific person needs to be protected at all costs.” Atheros explained. 

“My friend Lance was bitten by the spider, and has been targeting our friend Keith quite often.” Hunk looked at Atheros as she looked at the paladin in fear. 

“You must protect this Keith person with your life. The hostility will come from this Lance, and he will stop at nothing to keep him close. Does your friend Lance have feelings for this Keith by chance?” Atheros questioned. 

“Yes, he’s had a crush on him for a while, but now I think he’s falling in love with him.” Hunk admitted while rubbing the back of his head. 

“That is not good, you must take heed and get back to him immediately. The spider venom will affect everything, and by some point this Lance will try to claim Keith and attempt to dominate him even if he hurts him.” Atheros attempted to push Hunk out but Hunk stopped mid way to turn to the alien woman. 

“Just please tell me is an antidote?” Hunk questioned. 

“There is, but it would require you to head to the Red Death’s nest. Many of us have attempted this to provide an antidote, but we are only able to get the antidote every ten years. This is the only time we can get in their safely. One day every ten years, light shines down onto our planet and the darkness is gone. The Red Death doesn’t like the light and prefers the shadows, you can possibly get to the nest if using a light source but that is all the information I can give. Now go quickly, your friend is in danger!” Atheros snapped as she pushed Hunk out the door. 

“Thank you for all the help, and don’t worry, I’ll get there.” Hunk yelled back as he ran to his lion. He stopped mid way when he spotted the red death crawling on a nearby tree. 

Hunk knew that Atheros had given a bit of information, but he felt there was more than just causing a person to act hostile towards someone. Hunk took the containment unit he had in his lion and used it to capture the spider for further study. 

‘Don’t worry Lance, I’ll help you.’ 

Keith was sitting in his room after a run in with the healing pod the swelling had gone down quite a bit and he could see once more. He was happy that he could tell what’s going on around him now, rather than have to guess what way he was going with his swollen eyes. 

He started to clean his blade off as he was oblivious to somebody standing outside his doorway. The figure smiled once he reached the outside of Keith’s bedroom door. Happy to see the light was on, notifying him that he was inside.

"You’re mine, 'Pretty boy.'"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh, looks like Malo is gonna take things to the next level with Keith. That's right, folks! He's gonna seduce Keith next chapter.
> 
> Stay tuned next week for the one night stand between Keith and Malo.
> 
> Fun fact: the shipping name for Keith and Malo is Kalo, but in an abusive way. Also, the name for it is inspired by the Pokemon X&Y region, Kalos but without the S at the end.
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako  
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long


	9. Chapter 8: Pretty Little Psycho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malo takes things to the next level by seducing Keith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter contains sex, blood, graphic depictions of torture, Klangst and Langst!
> 
> Hi guys, Che1seaLovesYouAll here! I'm posting the one night stand chapter for TazumiHanako because she has a lot of stuff going on.
> 
> This is the chapter where Malo and Keith have a one night stand and then things get sexy and later bloody in this chapter.
> 
> It was one of my favorite chapters to edit because I nearly cried on seeing Keith getting hurt like this!
> 
> Also, this edit by Tumblr user, @xsilver-muse inspired me to have the one night stand scene as an idea for the fanfic: http://xsilver-muse.tumblr.com/post/157755403884/part-1-of-how-to-turn-a-seemingly-innocent
> 
> Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

It was a quiet night for the most part if you didn’t have to constantly be alert and afraid of what could come out of the dark hallways. 

Keith had decided to distract himself by polishing his blade, and it helped keep him calm and steadied his beating heart. Handling weapons gave him a sort of calm, and a sense of security. 

He was always alone as a child and never truly knew how to interact with kids, but then he became good at flying and it helped. He felt secure when he flew, but when he got kicked out of the Galaxy Garrison that security was taken away from him. 

The only thing that made it better was the blade that his father had given him before he passed away. 

He only found out recently that it had been his mother’s blade and a part of him wondered if she was still alive out there somewhere. Keith let out a sigh as he heard the door open, he immediately turned and stood up when Lance had appeared with the expression he always dreaded.

At this moment, Keith knew that it wasn’t Lance but Malo. Keith opened his mouth to speak but Malo covered his mouth to silence him. 

“You know, I’ve been a real pain in the ass to you recently, and I feel like I should make it up to you somehow.” Malo’s words slipped off his tongue like poison as Keith’s brows furrowed at the comment. 

Malo proceeded to move his hands to Keith’s wrists and pinned him up against the wall, restraining any movement that he could make. 

“Make me love you, make me desire you. If you want Lance to come back, then let me love you.” Malo smiles. “But first, why don’t we take things a bit slow?” 

Keith’s eyes widened as he felt Lance's, no Malo’s lips on his. They felt soft to the touch as he licked Keith’s lips to ask for entrance. 

Keith squeezed his lips shut tightly but Malo bit his bottom lip which made him emit a gasp and allow access to the inside of Keith’s mouth. Malo’s tongue licked along the edges of Keith’s teeth as it dances around with his tongue for a moment. 

The kiss had been one sided for a moment before Keith started to return the affection and soon enough they were wrestling with their tongues. Malo gripped at Keith’s hair which caused Keith to push him back. 

“Is this a joke?” Keith scoffed as he wiped his lips with his arm. 

“No, if you want Lance back, you just have to have sex with me.” Malo smiled as he licked his lips. “Besides it didn’t seem like you were complaining all that much.” 

“It’s not-You’ll go away if I-“ Keith is interrupted by Malo’s tongue darting into his mouth once more to shut him up. Malo begins to move Keith to the bed as he pushes him backwards while still deep in the kiss. 

Keith is at the edge of the bed as Malo continues to kiss him while taking off Keith’s jacket and slipped it onto bed. Keith’s arms encircled his neck to deepen the kiss even further as Malo pushes him back onto the bed completely. 

With a small sound, Keith releases Malo and flops onto the bed with a flushed face. 

Malo smiles as he places his palms by Keith’s hips and pushes them slowly up his abdomen whilst lifting up the fabric of his grey shirt. He kept moving them until he helped Keith full remove his shirt. He whistled as he took a good look at the upper half of his body. 

“Damn, you look so beautiful and sexy, ’Pretty Boy.’ Now it’s my turn." Malo says as he takes off his own jacket and tosses it to the side. He then reaches the bottom of his shirt to pull it up and over his head to take that off as well. 

Malo leans in closer as he feels something hard against his own cock. Keith lets out a small moan with reddened face; he looks up a Malo with wide eyes.

“Come on, don’t look at me like that. I may be new to this, but I’m just warming up.” Malo smiles. “Tell me, have you and Lance ever done this before?”

Keith stays silent as Malo grabs his hardened member with his pants thankfully taking away how intimate the contact would have been. 

“Looks like a no to me, I hope he doesn’t mind on me doing this with you.” Malo speaks as he begins to unstrap the buckle from Keith’s pants. Keith looks up at Malo once that statement left his mouth. 

“What do you mean by that?” Keith questions as Malo brings his pants down and past his ankles to toss them onto the floor. Malo sick of the questions just kisses him once more while biting at his bottom lip once more. 

Malo releases from the kiss and looks at Keith annoyingly but in a nice way, “Jeez, ‘Pretty Boy.' You talk too much.” 

Keith lets out a gasp from the contact as Malo brings down the last article of clothing from Keith’s body leaving him naked underneath him. 

“La-“Keith attempted to say Lance’s name but Malo covers his mouth quickly before removing his pants as well. He pulls off his last article of clothing as he grabs onto Keith’s body and throws him around to face the bed roughly. 

“This may hurt a bit; I hope you don’t mind ‘Pretty boy.’” Malo whispers as Keith turns his head to look at him.

“You’re not going in dry, are you?” Keith questions the boy as he just smiles and remains silent. 

“Lance.” Keith tries but he is quickly ignored as he watches the boy prepare two fingers. 

“Malo.” He gets ignored again as he feels two of Lance’s fingers insert themselves into his anus as he elicits a moan from the sudden penetration. Malo laughs as he brings his fingers out and sucks on each one. 

“Be ready, the real fun’s about to start.” Malo laughs as he begins to penetrate Keith with his penis which causes Keith to grab the bed sheets tightly from the sudden intrusion. 

Keith squeezes his eyes tightly as he felt Lance inside of him. He felt how Malo gyrated his hips into Keith a couple times as he felt the appendage move within him in back and forth motions. 

Keith’s grip tightened on the bed sheets as he felt the movements become more fast pace. He let out another moan as the movements become rougher and more forced. 

Keith suddenly felt like he was ready to explode as he cried out to Malo with slight tears in his eyes from not using much of a lubricant. 

“Malo, I’m gonna cu-“ Keith couldn’t finish his sentence as Malo gave a last push into his anal glands before pulling out and flipping him over. 

It gave Malo a good look at his hardened member which was making Keith cry in pain. Malo smiled as he began to rapidly pump the hardened cock as Keith’s moans became louder. Malo quietly hoped that no one would come running to stop this. 

“Malo!” Keith called as cum shot out of his shaft and onto Malo’s chest. Malo smirked as he wiped the substance off of his chest and licked it off of his finger tips. 

“That was quite easy, don’t suppose another round would be out of the question?” Malo teased as he watched a slightly disheveled Keith pant from the exercise they just had. 

Malo took that moment to get off of Keith’s body. Malo’s eyes land on the blade that Keith had been polishing prior to their heated session. He took a glance between the blade and Keith as he snatched the blade up and walked over to the over exhausted boy. 

“Keith, you really are pretty; I wonder how pretty you would look with blood all over you.” Malo’s lip turns upward as he cuts into his arm slightly as the blood oozes out. 

Keith whines from the pain it caused him as he stares at Malo too tired to stop him. Malo then takes the blade and carves into his body different words. 

‘Monster’ on his right arm.

‘Galra scum’ on his left arm. 

‘Orphan’ on his right leg.

‘Not good enough’ on his left leg. 

Each word was worst than the last and each stroke of the blade had Keith let out a cry of pain, and at one point Malo had stuffed his grey t-shirt from the floor into Keith’s mouth to muffle the cries. 

With each cry of pain, the more exhausted Keith had become as he fell unconscious. Malo then takes Keith and carries him back to Lance’s room. 

Malo smiles as he leaves the bloodied present for his other personality, hoping he enjoyed the gift he left. Before he knew it, the expression that help the most unpleasant of smiles changed to one that was filled with despair the moment he laid eyes on Keith. 

Lance looked between Keith and the bloodied knife in his hands and backed away from Keith whom was mostly naked except for his boxers. Lance shakes his head as he runs out of the room with tears in his eyes as he bumps into Shiro. 

“Lance?” Shiro questions as he glances at Keith’s blade in his hand with blood on it. 

“Why do you have Keith’s blade, and why is there blood?” Shiro demanded as Lance just shook his head which irritated their leader.

“I-I-“ Lance attempted to speak as Shiro rushed past him. 

He arrived at Lance’s room as he walks in to see something he would rather unsee. Keith was covered in blood and nasty remarks about his heritage that he already hates enough without being reminded of it. 

Shiro’s face scrunched up as he ran to the bathroom to get wash clothes and bandages. The least he could do is clean up the wounds and help him out. 

He wanted to destroy Lance for hurting his friend, but he also didn’t want Keith to hate him. 

He knew the right thing to do was get the wounds treated then talk to Allura and Coran about the situation and how it’s escalated. Once Shiro was done, he ran back out to find Lance whom was still shaking by the door. 

“How could you do this to him?!” Shiro demanded as Lance looked at him for a moment before shaking in silence once again. Shiro glares as he snatches the blade away from him and walks away. 

Lance feels as if his heart was broken into two as he sinks to the ground to whisper to himself. “I thought I could never hurt him, maybe I really am a monster.” 

Lance managed to bring himself back up to run into his room to see Keith with bandages all over his body. The tears fly down his cheeks as he lays next to the unconscious Keith. 

“I’m sorry, Keith. I’m so sorry, please forgive me.” Lance begged, knowing he couldn’t hear him currently. “ Looks like I don’t deserve to have feelings for you.” 

“Princess!” Hunk calls as he sees the princess and Shay. 

“Hunk! Shay called with a smile but was ignored as Hunk asked a more pressing question. 

“Where’s Keith?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunk arrives back at the castle and asks Allura where Keith is, did he made it back in time or is he too late to help both Lance and Keith?
> 
> Who knows? Find out next week!
> 
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long  
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako


	10. Chapter 9: Beautiful Liar, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk arrives back at the Castle and gives everyone the information for the spider that bit Lance, and Lance confesses his feelings for Keith before Malo takes over of him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 10 is finally released, I'm posting this for TazumiHanako again because she has been going on a lot in work today.
> 
> Hunk is about to tell everyone about what's been going on Lance and Lance later confesses his feelings for Keith right before Malo take over of him again.
> 
> Enjoy the chapter, everyone! ;)

“Princess!” Hunk calls as he sees the princess and Shay. 

“Hunk!” Shay called with a smile but was ignored as Hunk asked a more pressing question.

“Where’s Keith?!” 

“He should be in his room, why?” Allura questioned.

“No time.” Hunk snapped as he attempted to run toward the door only for Shiro to appear. 

“Hunk, what’s the rush?” Shiro questioned, trying to calm his state of mind after seeing what Lance had done to Keith. 

“I need to find Keith.” Hunk snapped again as Shiro’s expression darkened. 

“Shiro?” Allura questioned as he looked at the three of them for a brief moment. 

“Don’t look for him.” Hunk looks at Shiro with a raised brow. 

“What do you mean don’t look for him? He could be in danger.” Hunk cries out as the others look at him with furrowed brows and frowns plastered on their faces. 

“What do you mean, Hunk?” Shay questions her friend. 

Right as they are about to question them further, Pidge and Keith wander into the room. Pidge was in her normal attire but Keith had wrapped a long scarf around his neck yet again to go with his ensemble. Most likely to mask the hickey which was still prominent on his neck. 

“Keith! Thank god you’re alright.” Hunk exclaims as he brings a surprised Keith in for a hug. Keith cringes from the pain as he’s pressed against Hunk’s chest.

Keith was getting slightly better at interacting with his team, but Hunk was the one that was easiest to interact with since he had this abundance of kindness. 

If it wasn’t for the injuries he endured, the hug would have been much more enjoyable. 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Keith questions as he fakes a smile, something that Shiro sees through immediately. 

“You’re in big trouble right now, man. BIG trouble.” Hunk puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder as he looks at him with a raised brow in return. 

“What do you mean, Hunk?” Pidge questions as she walks over to Keith’s side. 

“There’s something I have to show everyone.” Hunk gestures to follow him to the labs where he had been researching the spider. 

The others followed the yellow paladin as he led them to the labs. Pidge and him would constantly be locked away in these rooms doing research to help better team Voltron as a whole. 

Pidge didn’t quite understand why he had brought them to this room but when she saw the spider contained in the glass case. She had a bit of an inkling on why they were here. 

“So I decided to travel to that planet that Lance had been bitten by that spider.” Hunk explained as he gestured to the spider within the containment unit. 

“Did you find anything out from your journey, Hunk?” Allura questioned with a gentle smile. 

“So when I went, I met an alien named Atheros.” Hunk began his story. “She told me about the spider and how it normally came out during the darkest nights on the planet. Normally if the sun was out, the spider wouldn’t come out because it can’t handle the sunlight. What I found most interesting though is that they call this spider the red death and it creates some sort of alternate personality with its venom. I studied the spider more and found that the studies were inconclusive, which could explain why they know only so much about this spider. She did go into detail as well and the thing is that Lance can be cured. The only thing is we only have one chance at this, the antidote is only produced every ten years. Also the place we have to go is covered in the spiders, and one bite can affect us the same way as Lance.” 

“So everything he did, it wasn’t really him?” Pidge questioned as Hunk nodded.

“You mean to tell me that there was an antidote?!” Keith cried out as everyone turned to Keith with raised eyebrows. Coran walked in at this time as he noticed the looks everyone was giving Keith.

“Is there something wrong, young paladins?” Coran questioned as Hunk snapped.

“You knew, didn’t you?” 

“I-“Keith tried to speak but quickly closed his mouth. 

“You knew, why, just why Keith. We could have helped Lance a while ago. So why the hell would you keep this from us? “ Hunk yelled as Keith shrunk back. For once he couldn’t argue because he knew he did wrong. 

“I thought I could handle it on my own.” Keith whispered as Hunk grabbed Keith’s shoulders and shook him back and forth. 

“You don’t even know the severity of this Keith. That spider bite-you-that spider bite caused a change in Lance. A change that could have hurt you, maybe even killed you. That alternate personality normally targets one specific person, someone special to the person bit. That person is you Keith.” Hunk stopped shaking him for a moment as tears ran down his face. Keith held onto Hunk as he slipped to his knees. 

“What are you talking about?” Shiro by this time walked closer to Keith but nobody paid no mind. 

“Lance-he-it’s better if he told you himself. It’s not my place.” Hunk admitted as Keith attempted to get more answers but Shiro placed a firm hand on his shoulder which made him decide against it. 

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner? We could have helped you.” Shiro questioned when Keith stood up. Shiro’s gaze kept glancing at Keith’s covered arms, and for a moment he wanted to reveal the secret he had withheld. 

“I’m sorry, Shiro. This was the only way, I didn’t want anybody to get hurt.” Keith let tears fall down his face for the first time in a long time. The relief shooting through his body for getting this secret off his chest. 

“Keith, why do you always think you can take on the world by yourself? I know you’re worried of other people getting hurt, but what about you?” Shiro’s expression softened as Keith’s eyes widened at the last comment. He silently wondered if Shiro knew about his injuries. 

“Because I thought I could handle this by myself. I thought I could protect everyone, but I was wrong. It’s my fault that Lance is still like this.” 

“Keith, it’s not your fault, but I do wish you’d come clean about one thing that happened.” Shiro gestured to his arm as he gave him a reassuring nod. 

“I-a-Lance kind of got to me before you got here Hunk. I honestly don’t think it’s that bad but I guess you can be the judges.” Keith tries to joke with everyone as he slips off his jacket to reveal the scarred wording on both of his arms. 

“Keith, oh my god! You let Lance do this to you?” Pidge cried out as she to began to cry from learning about her teammate being in pain. 

“I-a-didn’t let him. It kind of just happened.” Keith said as Pidge looked at him quizzically. 

“How does it kind of just happen?” Keith blushed from the stare and looked down at his feet. The tears now were a bit heavier as Pidge shrunk back not use to a crying Keith. 

“I think he’s had enough questions for one day.” Shiro spoke as he hugged the boy and brought him closer to his open chest. 

At this moment, Lance had walked in to take in the scene going on. The eyes that were now on him were both sympathetic and slightly angry. He wasn’t sure whether to take that as a good thing or a bad thing. 

“Lance, how are you feeling?” Shiro was the first to speak which cause Lance to take a double take. Since when has Shiro been nice to him through this whole exchange. 

“Shiro, why are you being nice to me? After what I did to Keith? I thought you hated me.” 

“Lance, it’s not your fault. When you got bitten by that spider, it had caused you to have a split personality. By the looks of it, your alternate personality is a bit more aggressive than we could imagine.” Shiro smiled softly to make the situation less than what it was. 

“I can’t believe this, I-” Lance clenched his fists when Hunk walked over to him. 

“Lance, you should tell Keith about your feelings. Those feelings are what’s causing him pain in the first place.” Hunk admitted as Lance gaped at him like a fish. 

“I don’t know if I could do that, Hunk. I-he’s just so-I can’t.” Lance stammered as his face began to turn crimson. 

“Trust me, Lance. This is for the best. If you care about Keith, you’ll admit your feelings. At least that way, he’ll know why your alternate personality keeps targeting him.” Lance looked between Hunk and Keith until he got up the nerve to walk over to the red paladin.

“Hey, Keith can I talk to you privately?” by this time Keith had erased any trace of the tears he cried and turned back to the rest of the group. 

“I’ll give you a minute, but only a minute. Don’t want anything happening while we aren’t present.” Shiro said as he ushered everyone out of the room minus Lance and Keith. 

“So what did you want to talk about?” Keith questioned him as Lance sat down on the floor and gestured for Keith to join him.

“Well, Hunk said it’s only right I tell you since it’s what’s causing you all this pain.” Lance admitted. 

“Hunk told me it’s only your place to tell me, so what is it?” Keith questioned as he looked into Lance’s bright blue eyes. 

“This is really hard for me to say. Honestly I’ve felt this way for a while, and it kind of started way back at the Garrison, but it took us getting into space for me to realize it. Keith, you are probably the most irritating person I have ever met, you hardly ever show emotion, and you have that hideous mullet.” Lance laughed as Keith glared at him.

“I get it; you don’t like me. Made no sense why Hunk would be so secretive about something we already knew.” Keith crossed his arms with a pout on his face. It was absolutely adorable, and Lance found himself even more attracted to the boy. 

“That’s not all. You may be irritating, but with without you, I think I’d start to miss that feeling. You hardly show emotion, but when you do my heart beats out of my chest from how you express your feelings. And your mullet may be the most hideous hairstyle, but on you I’ve never been more attracted to you.” 

“Lance you-” 

“Keith, I love you.” Lance smiled as he took Keith’s hand in his. He was happy to get his feelings off his chest. 

“Lance- I don’t know what to say.” Keith said as he removed his hand from Lance’s. 

“You don’t have to, I’m just happy to get that off my chest.” Lance smiled softly despite how he felt. Of course Keith wouldn’t love him back, especially after this whole alternate personality thing. 

He wouldn’t blame Keith for not loving him, he’s hurt him more times than he can count. 

“Lance, that’s not it. I don’t know how I feel about you. I’m just a bit confused right now. This whole Malo thing, and you; it’s messing me up inside. I want to reciprocate, but I don’t know if I can at this exact moment. I’m sorry I can’t give you a definite answer yet.” Keith apologized as Lance’s smile brightened.

“I’ll wait as long as I have to hear that you love me back.” Lance laughed as Keith smiled softly at his laughter. It was nice to hear it after such a long period of time. “Quick question though, but who’s Malo?” 

“He’s the name of that personality.” Keith admitted as Lance put a hand over his heart. 

“How did you know his name? How often did he come after you?” Lance questioned as Keith grabbed his hand and encased it in both of his palms. 

“He came after me a lot, but I’m ok. I promise I’ll be ok.” Lance couldn’t help his smile from getting bigger as he glanced at Keith’s lips for a moment. 

“Keith, can I kiss you?” Keith froze for a moment; he was so use to Malo just taking what was his that he forgot how genuinely Lance cared about his feelings. 

“It’s ok if I can’t.” 

“No, you may.” Keith smiled as he leaned in to lay a small kiss on Lance’s lips. They were just as soft as normal but this time there was no malice or hidden intentions behind the kiss. 

Just Lance and Keith, and nobody else. Lance bit Keith’s lip as Keith pulled away. Lance smiled weakly as he tried to stay conscious. 

“Oh, no! I’m about to black out, get out of here now before Malo does!” Lance yells as Keith attempts to run but is quickly grabbed by fast moving hands. The hands made quick movements to cover his eyes and bring him close to his body.

“Not so fast ‘Pretty boy,’ you know I don’t like it when you run.” 

“Shiro, help!” 

“Keith, don't worry I'm coming!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, oh! Malo's gonna try to kidnap Keith, will Shiro and the others get there in time to save him or is it too late for them?
> 
> Find out next week! ;)
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako  
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long


	11. Chapter 10: Beautiful Liar, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The interrogation starts, but can they trust Lance's alternate personality, Malo?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, sorry for the delay, I took up a couple extra hours at work because I need money for Otakon in August. 
> 
> That and my summer class has been kicking my ass a bit and has made it hard for me to work on multiple works like I wanted to do this summer. 
> 
> So I'm taking it a bit at a time, and after this one is over I will be starting my other collaboration for a Klance fic about the hanahaki disease. 
> 
> Thank you for being patient with me, and special thanks to Chelsea for being so incredibly patient with me. 
> 
> It's been a lot of fun working on this collab with her, and especially fun figuring out what's going to happen in each chapter each week. 
> 
> One song I listened to while writing this chapter was I lived by one republic which gives me those special feels, and gets me excited to see the amv contest at Otakon. 
> 
> Anyway for this chapter, Chelsea and I wanted to give the fans a chance to win some cool prizes. 
> 
> They aren't going to be extremely fancy, but they are going to be what we do best as authors. 
> 
> We want to welcome all artists of any kind to draw scenes from our stories, even animatics are accepted as well. 
> 
> We will be looking at each fan work and pick a winner based off who we felt represented the story beautifully. 
> 
> For first place, I'd love to collaborate with our winner along with Chelsea to create full length story of their choice. 
> 
> I'm a bit of a multi shipper so I will allow any ship or pair, and the winner is allowed to choose the storyline, and are even welcome to add their own characters to the mix as well. 
> 
> This fic will be encouraged to be at 13 chapters, but if the story goes over by one, then that is fine. 
> 
> Along with the first prize, their art will be shared on our page with a link to the full length story that they one, and it is not limited to only Voltron. I'm open to many fandoms. 
> 
> For second place, they will be able to collaborate with me directly to create a two-shot fanfic, with the same rules that apply to the first place winner. 
> 
> It will be a short two-shot fic, but second place and third place winners will get their prizes a bit faster considering the shorter the length. 
> 
> For third place, the same rules will apply but it will only be a one-shot story. 
> 
> We encourage all artists to give it a shot, and we are excited to see what all of you have in store for the contest. 
> 
> The contest end date will be August 15th, which is the last day of my classes. This story may be over before then, but once the date reaches I will post a final chapter to announce the winners of the contest. 
> 
> You have a month to create custom content about our fan fic and are encouraged to use our playlist for any animatic created. 
> 
> The playlist I believe was linked a couple chapters back in one of our notes. To enter, I will be opening up a place to summit posts with me till August 15th on my tumbler page. 
> 
> For any questions on the contest please ask me through my tumbler page for more information on the contest. 
> 
> I encourage every artist to summit something to my page so that we can pick our winners. 
> 
> You guys have a month and two weeks so use that time wisely ;)

“Shiro, help!” The words came out as soon as Malo’s hands had grabbed him. He was not quick enough to get away, and he knew he could get out of this but he didn’t want to hurt Lance’s body. 

“Keith, don’t worry I’m coming!” Shiro had called afterword running into the room with the other paladins. 

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Takashi, it’s nice that you would show up for ‘Pretty boy’ here.” Malo chuckled as he lifted Keith’s chin a fraction and licked the side of his face. 

“Let go of him now.” Shiro’s tone was steady and firm. 

The other paladins understood why Shiro would react that way since the action alone made all of them want to kill this Malo person. They all had to remind themselves that it was still Lance’s body. 

“How about you come and take him from me? That is, if you can.” Malo quickened his pace as he lifted Keith’s frame over his shoulder and ran out the door, locking it in the process. 

He hoped that the door would hold them long enough so that he can make his getaway with Keith. 

“Stop this, why are you doing this?!” Keith had started to pound on his back with clenched fists as Malo ignored each blow. 

“I’m doing this just because I can.” Malo was an interesting character, and had little to no reasoning for his own actions. 

Keith began to wonder what Malo could possibly gain from doing all of this. He already knew that Lance’s body was one thing that he could want, but why would he involve him. 

Lance had feelings for Keith, that much was true but did Malo choose to target Keith because of these feelings. Suddenly, Hunk’s words began to make a lot of sense. 

“D-Don’t you-” words etched out from Lance’s body as Keith felt himself get tossed to the ground suddenly. 

“What was that for?” Keith demanded as he watched Lance’s right hand clench at his heart. Lance was fighting Malo off somehow, but the only question was how it was possible? 

“Keith, getaway. I can only hold him back for so long.” Lance stammered as he fell to the ground. 

“No! Stop this, I won't let you!” Malo yells while trying to take control over Lance again, Lance clutches his chest more while trying to fight Malo.

“Watch me.” Lance says with a determined tone on his voice, Keith knew that voice from anywhere. Then, just in time, the others came in just in the nick of time.

Keith watched as the others made their way over to them with rope. They at least came prepared to tie Lance up, before Malo could resurface. 

“We are taking him back for an interrogation.” Shiro said as they all held him up through the struggles to carry him to the cockpit. 

Allura was waiting for them with a chair which they used to tie Lance’s body to so they can restrict all movement. 

“So, what is your name and why are you harassing Keith?” Allura was the first to question him as she heard a deep laugh come from the body in the chair.

“My name is Malo, and it should be pretty obvious why I’m harassing ‘Pretty boy.’” Shiro is ready to attack but Pidge holds him back. 

“So touchy, I wonder what else can make you mad. Oh, by the way, did I also mention that I slept with ‘Pretty boy?’ It was wonderful really, watching his naked, sweaty body, and moaning underneath me. It was quite a sight to see. If only you got to see it as well, Takashi.” Malo’s grin widened as Shiro’s expression darkened. 

By this time, he had to be held back by Pidge and Hunk, just so that Shiro wouldn’t turn Lance’s body into ashes. Keith kept his distance as he turned into a red faced mess. 

“Wait, you slept with Keith before Lance got to?” Hunk questioned as everyone in the room except Pidge and Keith rose an eyebrow at the remark. 

“Technically, it’s still Lance’s body.” Pidge pointed out. 

“Wait, why did you ask before Lance got to?” Shiro questioned as Hunk looked to Pidge.

“It’s nothing, Shiro.” Malo began to laugh as he looked between all of the paladins.

“This is rich, I can’t believe you don’t know. It’s so obvious.” Shiro glared at Malo as he walked over to hover over his figure. 

“Why are you doing this to Keith? Why not anyone else?” Pidge, by this time went to stand next to Keith as if to reassure the paladin everything was ok. 

“Isn’t it obvious? ‘Pretty boy’ seems to be very fond of Lance, he was a perfect target right from the start. Plus, it helped knowing Lance was in love with him, it made it all the more fun to torture my other personality.” Shiro gaped as he turned to look at Hunk, then to Keith whose skin had darkened to a darker red. 

“Lance was in love with Keith?” 

“Of course he was, who wouldn’t be? He’s sexy, and to top it off, how can he not think about him when he’s all sweaty after a workout session?” Malo laughed as Lance cried in his own mind from having such an embarrassing thought of his being shared with everyone. 

“Stop it, Lance wouldn’t want anyone to know his secrets.” Hunk pleaded with Malo, but everyone else couldn’t help but facepalm, since Hunk gave him an idea rather than stopping him. 

“Maybe that’s what I’ll do, do you want to hear more of Lance’s dirty laundry?” Malo questioned as his eyes bored into Keith’s.

“Enough of this!” Shiro snapped as he blocked Malo’s vision of Keith. 

“You’re so protective of him, Takashi. You know that he can handle himself, right? Heh, I guess he was right about you, you should stop treating him like a child.” 

“No, that’s not what I-“ Keith began but Malo interrupted him.

“You said it yourself, ‘Pretty boy.’ Don't you remember? It was during the spar match.” Malo laughed as Keith clenched his fists, feeling helpless as Malo tormented them. 

“Admit it, you know I’m right.” Malo looked at Shiro, who by this time was frozen in place. “Just tell him, ‘Pretty boy,’ tell him what you mean.” 

Keith’s mouth opens and closes as he tries to find the right words. “I can’t.” 

“Very well, I’ll tell him instead since you’re too scared to admit it.” Malo glanced at Keith to watch his reaction as his eyes moved over to Shiro. “He means to say that he doesn’t want you in his life.” 

Shiro freezes for a moment as Keith places a hand on his shoulder. Shiro looks down at his hand as he smiles softly at the gesture.

“Ignore him.”

“Enough is enough, alright Malo. What have you done to Lance and how do we get him back?” Allura questions as Malo lets out another laugh. 

“What’s it to ya, Girly? He ain’t coming back anytime soon. This is my body and I don’t want to give it back.” 

“If you don’t tell us right now, I will force it out of you.” Allura threatens as she moves close to the chair. 

“Is that a threat or a promise? If it’s a promise I want ‘Pretty boy’ to do it.” Malo licks his lips as he stares Keith up and down. This causes Pidge to step in front of Keith, although not being able to block much of the view. 

“If forcing you to talk is something like that, then it’s a threat.” Allura says as she moves another inch closer. 

“There’s not much else to say, ‘Pretty boy’ knows everything.” 

“Keith, do you know anything?” Shiro questions as he turns to the red paladin. 

“I actually do, to be honest I kind of forgot about it till now.” Keith said as he looked at Shiro. “It was back when I was kidnapped, I thought it was a dream but I guess it was real. He made a deal with the Galra to hide the antidote from us. In exchange he would give them me, and he would join up with them as a part of the team.” 

“It’s true, ‘Pretty boy.’ I do have plans with the Galra, and trust me, it won’t be pretty.” Malo laughs as he stares Keith down. “And you’re the prize I take with me.” 

“Over my dead body!” Shiro snaps. “If you don’t tell us how to get Lance back, I’ll do it the easy way or the hard way!” 

“Oh, hard sounds kinky.” Malo laughs once more as Shiro shakes his head out of frustration.

“Hard way it is, then.” Shiro walks over and lifts him up by the collar. “Tell us now or I’ll punch it out of you!” 

Keith runs over as he places a hand on Shiro’s tech arm that is ready for the blow. “No Shiro, you can't, he’s still in Lance’s body.” 

Shiro’s face scrunches up in frustration as he releases his grip on him. 

“How touching, looks like you do care about your team, Takashi, especially, Girly.” Malo smirks as Shiro freezes in his spot. 

“What is he talking about, Shiro?” Allura questions. 

“I know that Takashi here has feelings for you, I can feel it.” Malo smiles as Shiro turns red from the sudden confession. Shiro backs away from Malo as Allura turns to look his way.

“Is all of that true, Shiro?” 

“Yes.” Shiro admits with a curt nod. 

Allura smiles in return as she walks over to him to grab one of his hands. “I’m very fond of you as well.” 

“Awe , how lovely.” Shiro glares at Malo.

“This doesn’t concern you, and you believe you’re not taking any one of us with you.” Shiro hisses in his direction. 

“Oh yeah? Well, I guess this is gonna be the part where I finally tell you how to get your friend back.” Malo smiles as everyone gapes at him.

“There is an antidote, and I know exactly where to go for it, you just have to trust me.” Malo explains.

“I already knew about the antidote.” Hunk says as he sticks out his chest with pride. 

“Yes, but did you find the coordinates for it yet?” Malo smiles as Hunk deflates scratching his head.

“I know exactly where to go, you just have to trust me.” Malo smiled genuinely.

“What if this is a trap?” Pidge questions. 

“What choice do we have? Lance comes first.” Keith speaks up as Shiro agrees with Keith.

“It may be a trap, but we have to go for it, or we’ll never get Lance back.” Shiro grimaces as they bring up a map of the planet. 

“Their right there.” Malo gestures with his head as he points to the darkest spot on the map. 

“Let’s go.” 

“Are the Paladins on their way?” 

“Yes, ready the ship.” 

“Excellent, we will have our prize yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh dear, looks like the Galra are coming. Stay tuned on what happens next week!
> 
> And the information on the contest is on top of the beginning notes of this chapter is you want to take a look.
> 
> If you want to submit us fan related content of our fic to us, go to both of our Tumblr pages: 
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako  
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long


	12. Chapter 11: Dearly Beloved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything comes to a close as the paladins find the antidote and rush to save their friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update, and don't forget that the art contest is going on till August 15th, check last chapters notes for information on the contest. 
> 
> This is the second to last chapter of You'll Never Know the "Psychopath" Sitting Next to You. It's been a fantastic writing this story, and I can't believe it's coming to an end. We have one more chapter left, and then this story will be over. The contest ends on August 15th, so make sure to get your artwork out their with your favorite scenes from the story. Animatic welcome as well. 
> 
> After this story is over, I will be finishing my other work Out of Line, and Shadows. Shadows is Fairy tail, while out of line is voltron. I also have another collab on the way, and a college au fic I'm planning for Voltron. It's been a journey and I thank everyone who's reviewed this story. I also want to thank anyone who's shared the story through their tumbler pages. 
> 
> I've only noticed LovelyLangst post about it so far, but just seeing that post made me so happy. I love hearing that others on tumbler are checking out this story, and it makes me happy that so many people love it. Thank you so much and enjoy the second to last chapter! 
> 
> Extra note: Chapter was named after the music from Kingdom Hearts ;)

The dark terrain was just as Keith remembered. This was the moment he lost Lance, his Lance. 

At this moment, Malo was in complete control of Lance’s body, and there was nothing that the paladins could do about it till they got their hands on that antidote. 

They had just landed the Castleship when Malo took charge and led them off as if he’s memorized every nook and cranny of the planet. His arms were till tied to his body with an extended rope which Shiro was in possession of. To afraid to let Malo wander freely, and untrusting of him. 

“I can’t see anything.” Whined Pidge as her hands grasped at the pitch darkness in front of her. 

“Everyone. Just stay together. Don’t stray from the path.” Shiro calls back as Keith takes Pidge’s right hand as Hunk takes the other to lead her with the group. 

“Isn’t this lovely, so cute, just like a family. ‘Ptretty boy’ you finally have a family.” Malo laughs as Shiro tightens the rope which causes him to flinch. 

“No more taunting, you will lead us to the antidote and keep your mouth shut.” Shiro snaps as they wander into the village that Hunk remembered all too well. 

“Hunk!” A voice called to him as he turned to see Atheros. 

“Atheros, how have you been?!” Hunk questions as he joyously grasps his hands in hers. 

“I have been quite well, have you saved your friend?” Atheros questioned as Hunk gestured over to Keith while she smiled and encased him in a full body embrace. 

“This is glorious, the Keith you had talked about is safe from the Red Death.” Athero’s exclaimed as her nose twitched slightly from a scent that was all too familiar to her people. 

“Atheros, it’s not quite-” Hunk had begun to say but was interrupted by a scream a scurry of aliens running past to hide. 

“The issue had not been resolved, you brought the Red Death victim here?” Atheros questioned as she stood in front of Keith protectively. 

“Why are you hiding from us?” Shiro questions the aliens who had ran past him. 

“It is obvious; the alternate personality is in control. This Keith must be protected at all costs.” Atheros growls as she brings Keith close to her to shield him from the danger. 

“We actually already know, we came to find the antidote and Malo here is leading the way so we can safe our friend.” Shiro explains as he yanks on the rope again and causes Malo to hiss at him. 

“You dare bring this Malo to my village with just a mere rope to hold him back?!” Atheros snaps as Hunk puts a hand on her shoulder.

“It was the only way, we need Lance back. He’s my best friend and please will you help us get him back?” Hunk pleads with Atheros as her expression softens. 

“Alright, I shall help you to the antidote.” Atheros smiles as Malo scoffs. 

“I was leading you there, don’t you trust me?” Malo questions as everyone gives him a look that says, ‘Are you kidding?’ 

“Let us go, if we head east straight till the edge of the forest we should reach the destination.” Atheros speaks as she glances at Malo before leading Keith and the others through the woods. 

“The Red Death, has it been on your planet that long?” Pidge questions as Atheros nods to her. 

“Yes.The Red Death had not always been on this planet. We lived peaceful lives in the dark for a while then without warning, one of our own had fallen to the darkness. We didn’t know what had happened till one by one they fell. Each case was more severe than in the last, our people terrified. One day I had almost fallen to its compelling nature, but I had discovered the culprit before it had a chance to bite. We named the creature the red death and through time our people had researched the creature even if it meant getting close and risking the chance of exposure. Our people went into hiding when it was the darkest time on our planet. It was quite awful but every ten years an antidote is created through the spider’s venom. They only produce the venom that reverses the effects every ten years. This is your only chance to save your friend, and then you may live without fear.” Atheros frowned for a moment before pushing another tree branch out of the way. 

Keith felt sympathetic towards the alien, they had been through so much and they had to suffer. 

“A lot of things have happened to your people, Lance had tortured me, said horrible things he never said, and more. The whole time I thought it was him, but it wasn’t.” Keith admitted as Atheros took Keith’s hand in reassurance. 

“Similar things had happened to me. This woman I had fallen in love with had gone through that same spider bite. Her name was Athena, and she would often target me with cruel gestures, words and more. I was afraid of her for a while, the woman I knew was gone. I missed her terribly, but each time she was around that fear was there. This is how I found out that the Red Death bite caused one to target the ones they love through their alternate personality.” Atheros explained to the paladins. 

“If you don’t mind me prying, what happened to Athena?” Keith questioned as Atheros frowned. 

“She overcame her personality; we were unaware of the antidote at the time. She had destroyed herself to save me. When I discovered the antidote, it had been too late to save my one true love. No I protect others from the same fate. Because losing the one you love is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.” Atheros lead them further as Keith took that moment to look back at Lance, or Lance’s face anyway. 

“Love.” He repeated, barely a whisper. A couple moments later, Atheros walked through the underbrush and gesturing toward the cave. 

“I can only take you this far, please be careful.” Atheros warns as the others rush past her to the cave. 

“You have one chance Keith, don’t let this Lance of yours fall like Athena.” The last words fall on deaths ears as she disappears from site. 

The paladins make it into the cave as they see a vile that appears to be oozing with the spider venom that would reverse the effects. Hunk makes a step closer as Galra soldiers suddenly storm into the cave surrounding them. 

“Looks like the party has arrived.” Malo smirks as he manages to untie the rope and lets it slide down is figure. 

“No!” Shiro yells as Malo makes his way to Keith and lifts him over his shoulders. Shiro charges with his galra arm lit up and ready to get a hit on Lance’s body. 

Malo dodges the attack as Keith attempts to break free but finds it hard with the position he’s in. 

“I said I’d take my prize with me.” Malo laughs as he walks over to Zarkon who is standing a distance from the galran men. 

“Just like you wanted, I’m here for the deal.” Zarkon laughs as he knocks Malo out which causes him to drop Keith and allow him to run off from the situation. Mildly forgetting that Malo is using Lance’s body. 

“Surround the half-breed.” Zarkon barks orders as the other galran men go to surround Keith, constricting his movements. 

Each galran solider charged at Keith as he dodged each movement, and at times taking the arms of the galran soldiers and flipping them over onto their backs on the solid ground. 

Keith fails to notice a galran soldier preparing to grab him from behind but he get’s his warning when he here’s the familiar sound of Lance’s Bayard blasting from behind him. 

Keith turns around quickly to see Lance on the ground with a weak smile. 

“Lance!” Keith yells ecstatically as he runs over to him as he starts to lift himself off the ground. 

“Of course it’s me.” Lance laughs as Keith jumps at him hugging him tightly as if at any moment he could leave. 

“I just don’t want to lose you again.” Keith cries out as Lance’s grip changes on him which causes his eyes to widen. 

“Too bad he lost his time frame. Are you just realizing you’re in love with him, ‘Pretty boy?’ So sad, but no worries, you still have me.” Malo smiles as Keith spits at him.

“Over my dead body.” Keith snaps as Malo narrows his eyes at Keith. 

“That can gladly be arranged.” Malo grins as his right arm shoots up to cup Keith’s throat. 

“Hunk, hurry.” Pidge exclaims. As the fights had progressed, Pidge and Hunk had been busy getting the antidote together into a device they brought with them. It’ll allow them to shoot the antidote out from a long distance. 

“I’m going as fast as I can.” Hunk yells as he finishes setting it up. 

“He’s hurting Keith!” Pidge yells as she snatches the device from Hunk. 

“Pidge!” 

Malo continues to lift Keith off the ground as he strengthens his grip on his neck. From the corner of his eyes he sees Hunk and Pidge with the antidote. 

“Hand that over.” Malo barks with his grip still on Keith. 

“Never.” Malo glares at them as he throws Keith toward the ground, but Shiro has quick reflexes and catches him. 

Malo then takes the opportunity to charge toward Hunk as he swings a punch towards his face as Hunk catches his fist in hi palm.

Hunk was use to fighting Lance and he knew he was stronger but this wasn’t Lance he was talking to at this time. Hunk glares at Malo for a moment as Malo manages to force Hunk onto his knees. 

“So much for being strong.” Malo mocks as he manages to knock Hunk onto the ground with a thud. Hunk struggles to get up but Malo’s foot stops him as he holds him down. 

“Any last words?” Malo questions as Hunk glances over to see Pidge with the device. 

“Only one. Goodbye.” Hunk smiles as Malo looks at Hunk quizzically. He then catches wind of where he is looking and looks over to see Pidge with the antidote in hand. Pidge looks him straight in the eyes as she prepares the device. 

“It’s time to get our friend back. Goodbye, Malo.” Pidge says as she takes aim and fires the antidote at his neck. Malo attempts to dodge the attack but Hunk manages to hold him in place from his spot on the ground, letting the antidote take effect. 

“You haven’t seen the last of me! One day I will come back, and when I do, you will be sorry. You hear me?! You'll be sorry!” Malo yells as Lance’s body faints onto the floor, with Hunk catching him. Meanwhile the galra have dispersed the scene. 

“We will be back for you, half-breed.” Zarkon barks out as they prepare to leave, but before they leave they shoot at Lance with the ship’s targeting system. 

Lance’s eyes flutter open slowly as Hunk tries his best to get both of them to safety. 

“No!” Keith screams as he jumps in front of them, taking the shot that was meant for Lance. 

Everyone turns to see Keith now unconscious on the floor. Shiro can’t believe his eyes as he runs over yelling for Keith to wake up. 

Pidge let the tears fall from her face, the thought of losing someone else becoming real once again. Hunk could barely look to see his fallen friend as he tried to stay strong for Lance. 

As for Lance, he was back, but what was the point if the person you loved is gone? Lance let tears slip down his face as he kneeled in front of Keith’s fallen body. 

“Keith! No, I can’t lose you, not like this.” Lance cries as he pushes a strand of hair out Keith’s face. He lifts Keith slightly as he kisses him on the lips, feeling the warmth that seemed to be fading. 

Their lips then parted as he placed his forehead on his. The tears were now falling harder as they hit Keith’s face repeatedly. 

“Not like what?” Keith questioned as his eyes fluttered open. Lance smiled widely as he kissed Keith once more with passion, tears now flowing freely down his face. 

Keith deepens the kiss as he brings his hands up to run through his hair. They then part once more to look into each other’s eyes. 

“What's all this all for?” Keith questions as Lance pouts at him. 

“You’re such an idiot.” Lance’s expression then changes to that of a smile.

“I’m glad your back, Lance.” Keith laughs as Lance for the first time realizes that Malo is gone, and this time for good. 

“I am back, aren’t I?” After this everyone else comes running to hug the two of them in a big group hug. Pidge is the first to jump onto Keith with the tears falling down her face. 

Then Shiro came up to them ruffling Keith’s hair as he leaves his hand which causes Keith to smile. Hunk is the last as he brings all of them into a big group hug. Just happy everyone is alright. 

“You saved him, I’m glad.” Keith looked up to see Atheros and smiled at her. Lance got up and walked over to her, confused by who she was. 

“I’m Atheros, and you are Lance. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” She smiles as she pulls Lance’s hand out to hand him something of hers. 

“What is this? We just met.” Lance exclaimed as he saw a ring in his palm. 

“It’s not a problem since I know Keith. That was Athena’s, and I’m sure you can have better use of it then I can.” Atheros smiles as Lance blushes. 

“You mean, Keith and I?” Lance laughs as he tries to dismiss it.

“Maybe not now, but soon enough. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, it’s only a matter of time before that ring will be used. It’s a matter of how you will use the ring, and when you will pop that question.” Atheros whispers as Lance glances back at Keith who for once in a long time was laughing and smiling with the biggest grin on his face. 

“I do love him.” 

“This Malo can no longer hold you back from what you want, it is up to you to make the decision.” Atheros explains before she walks over to the others to say her goodbyes, with a lingering hug for both Hunk and Keith. 

“Goodbye, Atheros.” Hunk yells as she wanders away, before turning to Lance who put the ring in his jacket pocket already. “So, what did she tell you?” 

“Nothing important, let’s go home.” Lance says with a red face. 

“Lance, technically home is on earth.” Hunk says. 

“Yes, but to me home is people you love, and I’m already with them.” Lance smiles as he grabs Keith’s hand and leads him towards the woods to get back to the Castleship. 

“Let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray! Lance is back and Malo's gone for good, or is he....? 
> 
> Well, anyways no more suffering for Keith now that Lance is all better from Red Death bite. 
> 
> Stay tuned next week for the happy ending! ;)
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako  
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long


	13. Authors Note: Brittany's Internet Problem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look like we have a problem on our hands!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, it's Che1seaLovesYouAll and I have something to discuss with you guys.

Hi guys, it's Che1seaLovesYouAll here and I’m afraid I have some bad news.

Remember when you guys were expected to see the final chapter of YNKTPSNTY last week? Well, it turned out that Brittany aka TazumiHanako had some internet problems and she wasn't able to send me the chapter so I can edit and fix it.

Until this problem is fixed, you guys are gonna have to wait a little bit longer for the chapter to be done when Brittany's internet is fixed.

Sorry for the trouble and see you guys later!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like you guys are gonna have to wait a little longer until the problem is fixed.
> 
> We're sorry for the trouble, but don't worry, the final chapter will be posted soon when the problem's fixed. See you guys soon!
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako  
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long


	14. Epilogue: Our Special Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malo's gone and things are finally back to normal. Keith and Lance are finally boyfriends and start making plans, lets see what their next plan is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, TazumiHanako had her Internet fixed and was able to do the final chapter and send it to me so I can edit and fix it!
> 
> This is the moment you guys have all been waiting for, the finale. It's something I wanted to post for me and my friend, and also, I made an anime reference in this chapter so I'm pretty you guys might figure out what anime I referenced.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy the final chapter! ;)

The castle had been quite the last few days, no Galra attacks to keep them busy. Shiro had kind of expected to hear from the Galra by now since they had an obsession with Keith since he was part Galra. They heard nothing. 

Lance was even back to normal doing what he usually would do on these days off. Well, except for the fact that he had a much better way of spending his time now. Keith and him were finally talking again and catching up although they never had the official talk as boyfriends. 

Maybe Lance could discuss that with him today as long as he could find mullet head, where was he anyway? 

Bingo-he had found Keith alright, and he was doing the one thing he was known for which was polishing his massive knife collection. Where did he even purchase the mass abundance of weapons anyway? I suppose Lance would never know.

“Keith!” Lance called out as the boy turned to face him.

“Hey, Lance.” Keith replied with a tint of red dusting his cheeks. 

Ever since the battle with the galra and finding out how desperate he had been to get Lance back, he realized rather quickly that he had developed feelings for the latter. 

They can probably go months without Keith saying those three words but that wouldn’t feel quite right since Lance has told him over 100 times so far. The end of the battle had been about a week ago, but Lance hasn’t missed a single moment to not say those words to Keith.

“I love you.” This marked number 101, and yet Keith’s count was rather low to a whopping zero. 

“You’ve told me so many times already, does that ever get old?” Keith questions with his corner right lip raising slightly. 

“It’ll never get old cause I love you that much, plus I’m trying to make up for how I’ve hurt you.” Lance mentioned while scratching the back of his head. 

“You know damn well that wasn’t you.” Keith replied as Lance looked him in the eyes. 

“What did he do to you?” Lance questioned as Keith’s form tensed up.

“It’s hard to retell the events without me feeling like somehow I caused them to happen.” Keith replied as Lance put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. 

“Keith whatever it was, you didn’t cause this. My stupid feelings for you did.” Lance frowned as Keith glared at the boy.

“Stupid feelings, are you saying you should have never had feelings for me?” Real nice Lance.” Keith scoffed as he made a move to get up and walk away. Lance’s arm shot up immediately to stop him. 

“No, Keith that’s not what I meant. I love you so much but my feelings for you got you hurt and abused. I wish I could take back my feelings just so I wouldn’t have hurt you. My feelings for you caused you pain, but at the same time I would never ever take back how much I love you.” Lance smiled as Keith’s body relaxed. 

“You keep saying I love you, right? But you haven’t even given me a chance to say it back.” Keith looked at Lance for a moment as Lance pulled Keith back down to sit. 

“I’m listening then.” 

“Lance, I-I love you.” Keith immediately after hid his face from embarrassment. 

“You’re too cute.” Keith looked up at Lance with a smile as Lance’s hand came up to caress his face and bring it up to his for a kiss. Lance’s lips brushed Keith’s as his arm hit against Keith’s arm which caused Keith to cringe at the contact. 

“Keith?” Lance questioned as Keith looked down at the floor. 

“I’m sorry, it’s just the scars I got are still a bit sore. It’s nothing really.” Keith reassured Lance as he had attempted to pull off Keith’s jacket.

“Lance!”

“Show me your arm.”

“I told you it was nothing.” 

“If it’s nothing, then show me your arm.” By this time, Keith removed his jacket for Lance to see the scars that were on his arms. 

“Oh, Keith, he did this to you?” Lance’s fingers grazed the scarred flesh as Keith Keith flinched once more. 

“He used my own weapon to carve that into my skin.” Lance let tears fall from his eyes.

“I could have stopped this, why didn’t I realize something was wrong with me? With all the blackouts?” 

“It’s not your fault, your back and that’s what matters now, although we did kind of had sex.” Keith mentioned as Lance’s eyes widened and turned him around faster than a speed of light. 

“You had sex, with me? Well, not me and I don’t even remember it.” Lance cried out as Keith glanced over at him. 

“I mean, it wasn’t really you, so we still can have a first time.” Keith mentions with a sly smile.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Lance mentions while draping an arm over Keith. 

“I’m saying maybe tonight, if this means we are official?” Keith smiles as Lance moves closer to him. 

“We are beyond official, but shouldn’t we go on a date first before our first time?” Lance mentions.

“Well, what did you have in mind?” Keith questions but before they can officially make plans, the moment is ruined by one Takashi Shirogane.

“Maybe Lance should remove his arm before I break it.” Shiro mentions. 

“Shiro, you sure you’re not Keith’s older brother, or parent. Because you are being like super protective.” Pidge mentions as she makes her way into the room. 

“I’m not, but it’s hard to get past what just happened.” Shiro sighed.

“We know, but Lance is back and he’d never hurt Keith.” Hunk mentions as he to enters the room. 

“Very true.” Pidge agrees.

“And moment ruined.” Lance sighs as Keith lets out a small laugh.

“Please, we have more than enough time for a perfect moment.” Keith smiled as Pidge sat next to him.

“So what are you guys going to do for your first date?” Pidge questions as Lance ruffled her hair. 

“That’s a secret, our little Pidgeon.” Lance laughed.

“Glad your back.” 

“I’m glad to be back, but if you’ll excuse me, I have a date to plan.” 

The rest of the day went quite well, with training and finding out where they would land next. The date Lance planned was beautiful, but they wouldn’t land for the next two days and to be frank, he wanted to have his special moment with Keith. 

The ring that he obtained from Atheros, he had plans for the ring, but he knew that it would be to soon with their first date approaching. He loved Keith, and he wanted everything to be perfect, but a proposal was out of reach at least for a couple months. 

Lance paced back and forth as he rushed to Keith’s room, hardly thinking as he was ready to be with Keith intimately, even if it meant skipping out on a date before their first time since the malo incident. Lance took the opportunity to knock on the door, and it took no time for Keith to answer it. 

“Keith, I know we haven’t exactly had our first date yet, but I love you and I know what that we are ready for this and….” 

“You want to have our first time?” 

“Exactly.” 

“Then, come in.”

Lance walks in to Keith's room and they came into the bed to prepare for their first time, Keith and Lance sat on the bed making out, tongues colliding, hearts racing, hands running through hair and tracing up sides. They both leaned back and gasped for air. Keith kissed Lance's neck and down his shoulders.

They both removed each other’s jackets from their bodies leaving only their shirts, Lance pushes Keith down the bed. They were laying on top of one another. Lance starts kissing Keith's neck despite the hickey Malo gave him was there, it was something he wants for both of them.

He lifts up from kissing Keith's neck and looks down at him, “Does it feel good? Or… maybe not? If you're uncomfortable, just tell me.” Keith looks up at Lance and blushes, he thought of this moment to something he'll never forget.

“Of course, looks like our romance has finally began.”

“We may have made mistakes and it's been awkward, but this is our moment.”

Keith lifts his arms and wraps them around Lance's neck, “Actually, your kisses feel good, Lance. I like it.”

Lance gasps as Keith said that, “Really?” Keith nodded as he moves his hands through his boyfriend’s hair, “I want to feel you as much as you feel me.”

“Okay, are you ready?” Lance asks as he moves Keith's hair away from his face with his hand. “Yeah, I'm ready.” Keith answers as he and Lance both kiss and held onto each other.

“So… we'll take it slow.”

“And from now on….”

“....We'll share our love together.”

It took them less than a minute to get undressed and another for them to get into bed with each other. Their mind and bodies became one for the very first time that night, and to think they didn’t even have their first date yet. 

The following morning was like no other as for the first time, they wake up next to each other in bed without the constant memory of Malo’s abuse being on their minds. It was a relief that they were able to be with each other without the abuse that had tied into it. 

“Good morning, beautiful.” Lance said as he brought Keith closer to him.

“Beautiful and not mullet, wow such a charmer. “ Keith laughed as Lance pecked him on the lips.

“So I believe we are scheduled to be landing tomorrow for our first date, I had the biggest plans.” Lance smiled as Keith turned over to look up at him.

“I thought we were suppose to have the date first before you get me into bed, Lance.” Keith joked as Lance looked at him clearly unamused. 

“Not funny mullet, but seriously I have the best plans, so trust me.” Lance said as Keith kissed him once more to agree with Lance’s plans for their very first date since the incident.

The next day had been long up until the following day when they landed on the planet. The whole day spent was to have a picnic with some food and great company. Lance made sure everything was perfect but couldn’t help but feel jealous at some of the male aliens who seemed to want to interrupt their time by flirting with Keith. 

Keith was clearly uninterested but it still ruined part of Lance’s plans. His next plan was to go shopping in the local market, but ended badly with the same alien from the park causing Lance to fight him since he wouldn’t go away. 

The date was ruined before it began, but when they got back to the ship Lance promised Keith that the other dates wouldn’t be like this.

Keith never cared about that though and told him that he loved him and nothing would change that. Lance was a fool for love, and to think about marriage, maybe? 

But he already knew that in a couple months’ time he would propose to Keith, because he knew that Keith was the one. That was one thing that would never change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, the story is finally over! I really loved making this with TazumiHanako, it was fun!
> 
> I might want to do this again but I'm more of a beta reader than a writer, and that's what I'm good at besides making story ideas.
> 
> By the way, the fic contest is still ongoing, you still have an opportunity to post your art and edits to either one of our Tumblr pages. The contest ends in 2 weeks on August 15th on Tuesday.
> 
> I'll be sure to see more art and edits of it soon, see you later and remember, the contest ends in 2 weeks.
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako  
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, guys! I'm Che1seaLovesYouAll or you may know me as @che1sea-xiao-long on Tumblr, I can't believe that this is my first writing collaboration with my new friend, Brittany aka @tazumihanko.
> 
> I'm the one who made this story idea and that's when I'm best known for: making story ideas. If you have any questions to ask us or ideas you'd like to give to add in the fanfic, find us on Tumblr. 
> 
> Brittany's Tumblr: @tazumihanako  
> My Tumblr: @che1sea-xiao-long


End file.
